An Imaging HF GPR Using Stationary Antennas: Experimental Validation Over the Antarctic Ice Sheet

• Published in: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Le Gall, Alice, Ciarletti, Valérie, Berthelier, Jean-Jacques, Reineix, Alain, Guiffaut, Christophe, Ney, Richard, Dolon, F., Bonaime, Sébastien
• Other Authors: Centre d'étude des environnements terrestre et planétaires (CETP), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), OSA, XLIM (XLIM), Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2008
• Subjects: wave propagation; ice subsurface; ground-penetrating radar (GPR); finite-difference time domain (FDTD); Mars; Deep soundings; [SPI.SIGNAL]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Signal and Image processing; [SPI.ELEC]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Electromagnetism; [SDU.STU.GL]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Glaciology; [INFO.INFO-TS]Computer Science [cs]/Signal and Image Processing; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00346014; https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2008.2000718

International audience Terrestrial And Planetary Imaging Radar (TAPIR) is an innovative high-frequency ground-penetrating radar (GPR) developed in the frame of the Martian NetLander mission to probe the subsurface down to kilometric depths. Unlike most GPRs, TAPIR is able to image underground reflectors with stationary antennas. In this paper, after a brief presentation of the instrument, we describe the method developed to interpret data collected during the RAdar of NEtlander in Terre Ade acutelie (RANETA) field survey in Antarctica. This method consists of retrieving the direction of arrival of each detected echo through the measurement of five components of the electromagnetic field (the three magnetic components and the horizontal components of the electric field). Thus, both the range and the direction of each individual reflection or diffraction due to the ice-bedrock interface are resolved. We validated this method on finite-difference time-domain numerically simulated data for different subsurface configurations before applying it to RANETA observations. In particular, the irregular topography of the bedrock in two sounding sites was revealed. We discuss the accuracy of our results