Laboratory and field Ground Penetrating Radar measurements for buried weapons detection

In this work we present the results obtained in two different experiments aimed at evaluating the capability of Ground Penetrating Radar to detect buried metal weapons. The first experiment was conducted acquiring radar data on a layer of synthetic sand in which a metal gun was hidden at shallow depth. The second experiment was conducted in the field, collecting radar data in an area where four different objects were buried (at about 30cm) in sandy volcanic soil. The radar survey was performed for different soil water contents (dry and wet conditions). The results show how the capability to detect the targets and define their depth and shape is strongly dependent on the target depth and orientation with respect to the antenna electric field, as well as to the host material dielectric properties.