ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: An introduction to Ground Penetrating Radar using simulation and imaging software is presented. Simulating GPR radargrams is used as a tool to show the importance of forward modeling of radar waves. The compliscated radar patterns that can result from even the most simplest structures buried in the ground is shown using the typical GPR equipment that have broad transmitted beams. Simulation software is used to demonstrate the effects of GPR transmission, including refraction, reflection, attenuation, and to show the effects of multiply reflected energy paths in the ground on recorded radargrams. Simulation training of GPR is important in creating caution for the interpreters of GPR and helps as a guide post in avoiding interpretation pitfalls that can happen when only raw radargram information is read. The utility of visualizing GPR data using time slice analysis and other 3D imaging displays, indicates that large structural features can be accurately mapped with radar. GPR imaging of Roman, Japanese, and early Spanish structures are presented. GPR-GPS imaging of an Native American Indian cemetery is also provided using isosurface rendering of the site to indicate marked and unmarked burials. Overlay analysis in which comprehensive 3D reflection information is collected into single 2D images, is shown to be a very useful form of data display, particularly for sites in which continuous reflectors are not at a constant depth from the ground surface.
