IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing · 2015 · 192 citations · 77 references
Natural SciencesEarth SciencesGeophysicsAntennasSoil PhysicsSoil ScienceAntenna SimulationEngineering GeophysicsFinite Difference Time Domain AnalysisGeophysical Signal ProcessingGround-penetrating RadarRadar AntennasComplex PermittivityDielectric Constant Modeling Of SoilFinite Difference Time Domain ModelingFrequency-dependent PermittivityLandmine DetectionNumerical ModelingPermittivityVolumetric Water Content
The authors present a realistic GPR simulation framework intended as a testbed for developing and evaluating novel signal‑processing and interpretation techniques for landmine detection. They implement a 3‑D FDTD model with two bowtie transducers and two antipersonnel landmines (PMA‑1, PMN), validate the antennas and mines against laboratory data, and simulate realistic soil using fractal‑based inhomogeneity, surface roughness, and a frequency‑dependent Debye permittivity model linked to soil physical properties. The simulations reveal that vegetation and water puddles degrade GPR performance at 0.5–3 GHz, and preliminary results indicate the framework’s usefulness for testing new processing methods.
A three-dimensional (3-D) finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm is used in order to simulate ground penetrating radar (GPR) for landmine detection. Two bowtie GPR transducers are chosen for the simulations and two widely employed antipersonnel (AP) landmines, namely PMA-1 and PMN are used. The validity of the modeled antennas and landmines is tested through a comparison between numerical and laboratory measurements. The modeled AP landmines are buried in a realistically simulated soil. The geometrical characteristics of soil's inhomogeneity are modeled using fractal correlated noise, which gives rise to Gaussian semivariograms often encountered in the field. Fractals are also employed in order to simulate the roughness of the soil's surface. A frequency-dependent complex electrical permittivity model is used for the dielectric properties of the soil, which relates both the velocity and the attenuation of the electromagnetic waves with the soil's bulk density, sand particles density, clay fraction, sand fraction, and volumetric water fraction. Debye functions are employed to simulate this complex electrical permittivity. Background features like vegetation and water puddles are also included in the models and it is shown that they can affect the performance of GPR at frequencies used for landmine detection (0.5-3 GHz). It is envisaged that this modeling framework would be useful as a testbed for developing novel GPR signal processing and interpretations procedures and some preliminary results from using it in such a way are presented.
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