Characterization of Local 3-D Rough Dielectric Surfaces Using Standoff GPR Measurements with Widebeam Antennas

In real life most ground surfaces are not flat but rough. The observation of surface roughness depends on the wavelength and angle of the incident wave. In order to be able to detect shallow subsurface objects, on one hand we need to use higher frequencies to achieve better range resolution. One the other hand we have to deal with rough surfaces relative to shorter wavelengths. In this paper a wideband ground-penetrating radar (GPR) phase measurement and processing technique for characterizing three-dimensional (3-D) rough dielectric surfaces is presented. The method is based on the measurement of phase data by a standoff GPR with wide-beam antennas at short range over 3-D rough ground surfaces. The principle of this method was verified experimentally in the measurement of a composite surface. The height of the composite surface varies from 0 to 8 cm. The antennas are open-ended waveguide antennas whose frequency range is 2.3 GHz to 4.3 GHz. They are broadband, have low gain and wide beamwidth. The experimental tests demonstrate that the 3-D rough surfaces can be characterized locally by using a monochromatic and multifrequency broadband phase processing and imaging method. The results show good agreement between the imagery of the surface height distribution obtained by this method and the actual geometry of the 3-D rough surfaces.