Detection and imaging of small buried 3D non-metallic objects with multistatic phase-based GPR signatures

In this paper the bistatic and monostatic phase-based ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technique for ingenious detection of poor-contrast scattering objects hidden just beneath the air-ground interface is discussed. This technique neither requires a priori knowledge about the background medium nor needs any pure background measurement. It was developed to deal with one of the worst-case scenarios in terms of landmine detection. The method was tested with the data measured from the L-band and S-band stepped-frequency continuous-wave GPR over the compound soil where small non-metallic mines are shallowly buried. The results demonstrate that it is feasible to detect small buried poor-contrast objects by using coherent phase processing and imaging.