Propagation velocity uncertainty on GPR SAR processing

Abstract

To detect buried landmines, Planning Systems Incorporated (PSI) has developed a ground-penetrating synthetic aperture radar (GPSAR) system. Since the electromagnetic wave propagation velocity in the soil depends on many factors, velocity uncertainty is inevitable. However, we have observed that, unlike conventional airborne/spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, the PSI GPSAR system is very robust against the velocity uncertainty under mild conditions. Theoretical analysis is provided to explain this observation. Although our discussion is based on the PSI GPSAR system, it applies to other GPR-based (ground-penetrating radar) landmine detection systems as well.