Electromagnetic Subsurace Radar Using the Transient Field Radiated by a Wire Antenna

A radar based on the propagation of a short pulse of current along a wire parallel to the ground surface is described. The wire acts both as a traveling-wave transmitting antenna and as a receiving antenna. For applications to civil engineering, the depth of exploration may be less than 1 m, the purpose being, for example, to detect discontinuities situated near the ground surface, to measure the thickness of a thin layer (10-50 cm), or to characterize a change in its reflection coefficient. Therefore, the width of the pulse of current is about 1 ns. The theoretical approach shows that the wire must be situated at about 10 cm above ground and that there is an optimum position for the current probe that detects the induced current due to a reflecting layer. Several experiments will also be described showing the feasibility of the method.