Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Air-coupled ground penetrating radar (GPR) systems are widely used for subsurface imaging in demining, geological surveys, and infrastructure assessment applications. However, strong surface reflections can introduce interference, leading to receiver saturation and reducing the clarity of subsurface features. This paper presents a novel surface reflection suppression algorithm for stepped-frequency continuous wave (SFCW) GPR systems. The proposed method estimates the surface reflection component and applies phase-compensated subtraction at the receiver site, effectively suppressing background reflections. A modular SFCW radar system was developed and tested in a laboratory setup simulating a low-altitude airborne deployment to validate the proposed approach. B-scan and time-domain analyses demonstrate significant suppression of surface reflections, improving the visibility of subsurface targets. Unlike previous static echo cancellation methods, the proposed method performs on-board pre-downconversion removal of surface clutter that compensates for varying ground distance, which is a unique contribution of this work.
Source: Remote Sensing
DOI: 10.3390/rs17101668
Authors: Primož Smogavec, Dušan Gleich
Institution: University of Maribor
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,258
Awards: G1152435294, Telematics
OpenAlex ID: W4410240433