Time-reversal of electromagnetic scattering for small scatterer classification

Abstract

Time-reversal operators, or the alternatively labelled, but equivalent, multistatic response matrix methods, are used to show how to determine the number of scatterers present in an electromagnetic scattering scenario that might be typical of UneXploded Ordinance (UXO) detection, classification and removal applications. Because the nature of the target UXO application differs from that of many other common inversion problems, emphasis is placed here on classification and enumeration rather than on detailed imaging. The main technical issues necessarily revolve around showing that it is possible to find a sufficient number of constraints via multiple measurements (i.e. using several distinct views at the target site) to solve the enumeration problem. The main results show that five measurements with antenna pairs are generally adequate to solve the classification and enumeration problems. However, these results also demonstrate a need for decreasing noise levels in the multistatic matrix as the number n of scatterers increases for the intended practical applications of the method.