GPR Response From Buried Pipes: Measurement on Field Site and Tomographic Reconstructions

The identification of the physical nature of an object or target causing a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) anomaly, as well as the estimation of a target’s dimensions and geometry, is rather challenging. To improve target identification, basic studies are still required, and they can be addressed primarily using a laboratory- or field-based physical model. The field model (test site) is usually expensive and difficult to build, but it provides data for controlled target properties and geometry from a natural environment that are essential for testing processing techniques. In this paper, we present the results from a field experiment where GPR data were collected on plastic and metallic pipes. The main objective is the comparison of the classical migration technique with a microwave tomography approach for reconstructing the geometrical target properties. The use of the microwave tomography approach will allow us to obtain more focused and stable images of the buried objects compared to the ones obtained using classical migration techniques.