Classification of target buried in the underground by radar polarimetry

This paper discusses the classification of targets buried in the undergroun d by radar polarimetry. The subsurface radar is used for the detection of o bjects buried beneath the ground surface, such as gas pipes, cables and cav ities, or in archeological exploration operation. In addition to target ech o, the subsurface radar receives various other echoes, because the undergro und is inhomogeneous medium. Therefore, the subsurface radar needs to disti nguish these echoes. In order to enhance the discrimination capability, we first applied the polarization anisotropy coefficient to distinguish echoes from isotropic targets (plate, sphere) versus anisotropic targets (wire, p ipe). It is straightforward to find the man-made target buried in the under ground using the polarization anisotropy coefficient. Second, we tried to c lassify targets using the polarimetric signature approach, in which the cha racteristic polarization state provides the orientation angle of an anisotr opic target. All of these values contribute to the classification of a targ et. Field experiments using an ultra-wideband (250 MHz to 1 GHz) FM-CW pola rimetric radar system were carried out to show the usefulness of radar pola rimetry. In this paper, several detection and classification results are de monstrated. It is shown that these techniques improve the detection capabil ity of buried target considerably.