Experimental Investigation for GPR Detection of Buried Objects with Varied Sizes and Orientation

Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) is a remote sensing technology with immense potential. Its performance and quality of results strongly depends on primarily the composition of the soil and further on other aspects of the subsurface targets like the size, material, shape, depth, and orientation. The central operating frequency of the GPR and the type of antenna on the GPR are selected based on the factors above, to be able to detect your intended target satisfactorily. Limited exploratory research work has been undertaken in this field in India towards detection of small shallow buried objects. The present study attempts to experimentally investigate the combined effect of predetermined size and orientation of small shallow buried objects in conjunction with a suitably selected central frequency of the GPR. The experiment was conducted in Jaisalmer, where the arid dry sandy wastelands are conducive to GPR performance. Signal processing methods have been applied to the standard GPR results to derive better output. Apart from the standard effect of material of the targets and the depth buried to, the study mainly provided data indicating a positive correlation between the central operating frequency of the GPR and the quality of detection of the shallow subsurface targets of size corresponding to the wavelength $\lambda$. The positive correlation of polarization of the GPR antenna to the alignment of the buried object was also noted. Further investigations covering more factors affecting GPR performance is advocated by the present study.