Final report of LDRD project: Electromagnetic impulse radar for detection of underground structures

This report provides a summary of the LDRD project titled: Electromagnetic impulse radar for the detection of underground structures. The project met all its milestones even with a tight two year schedule and total funding of $400 k. The goal of the LDRD was to develop and demonstrate a ground penetrating radar (GPR) that is based on high peak power, high repetition rate, and low center frequency impulses. The idea of this LDRD is that a high peak power, high average power radar based on the transmission of short impulses can be utilized effect can be utilized for ground penetrating radar. This direct time-domain system the authors are building seeks to increase penetration depth over conventional systems by using: (1) high peak power, high repetition rate operation that gives high average power, (2) low center frequencies that better penetrate the ground, and (3) short duration impulses that allow for the use of downward looking, low flying platforms that increase the power on target relative to a high flying platform. Specifically, chirped pulses that are a microsecond in duration require (because it is difficult to receive during transmit) platforms above 150 m (and typically 1 km) while this system, theoretically could be at 10 m above the ground. The power on target decays with distance squared so the ability to use low flying platforms is crucial to high penetration. Clutter is minimized by time gating the surface clutter return. Short impulses also allow gating (out) the coupling of the transmit and receive antennas