Ricerc@Sapienza

Each grounding system (GS) needs periodical measurements to control its adequacy to the safety conditions. The tests of step and touch voltages are the sole measurements available in urban or industrial areas with reduced accessibility. In fact, in these areas, the classic measurements used to verify the electrical characteristics of the GS generally present some operational difficulties.

The main goal of this paper is to investigate the performance of an algorithm for point extraction from hyperbolic reflections in synthetic and real Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) data. The real radargrams that we considered contain hyperbolic reflections due to the presence, in the surveyed area, of district heating pipelines DN250 (250mm inner diameter pipe). These are buried 88 cm deep in a soil trench, and covered by compacted sand and concrete bricks (behaton pavement).

The main goal of this paper is to determine the characteristics of an algorithm for point extraction from hyperbolic reflections in Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) data with different acquisition settings. Analysis is performed on a series of experimental radargrams that were collected in real conditions, on the same location. Two district heating pipes DN250 in atrench, covered by compacted sand, were scanned and the acquisition was done by using a 900MHz antenna. The pipe depth and the axial distance were measured when the trench was open.

In this paper, the possibility of using a multiple- ring circular array as an antenna array for Ground-Pene- trating Radar systems is investigated. The theory behind the proposed idea is presented. The preliminary numerical re- sults that are obtained suggest that the proposed configura- tion is promising. It allows achieving a wide frequency band and low dynamic range ratio of excitations, thus simplifying the feeding network. Further interesting requirements may be satisfied by exploiting a combination of deterministic and stochastic synthesis techniques to design the array.

Recent studies highlighted deep-penetration properties of inhomogeneous waves at the interface between a lossless and a lossy medium. Such waves can be generated by means of radiating structures known as Leaky-Wave Antennas (LWAs). Here, a different approach is proposed based on the use of a lossy prism capable to generate an inhomogeneous wave when illuminated by a homogeneous wave. The lossy prism is conceived and designed thinking of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR).

This paper describes the software and firmware programs for interactive control of a frequency-modulated continuous-wave ground-penetrating radar (GPR). The presented radar system is being developed at Sapienza University of Rome in the framework of the project carried out by European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action TU1208. The research is focused on developing an affordable GPR and introducing it into the educational process.

The imaging of buried targets by means of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys is typically affected by nonideal and critical operational conditions. The targets are often located in the near-field region of the illuminating antennas, having size comparable to the probing wavelengths and, thus, to the resolution limits of the considered system.

Herein we present a super resolution and electromagnetic interference suppression technique based on Maximum Entropy Method and applied to data acquired by the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) on board the NASA's 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) mission, currently operating on Mars. We show that the proposed algorithm allows to enhance signal-to-noise ratio by several decibels and the range resolution over a factor of three. Subsurface imaging is improved remarkably, allowing additional insights for the scientific community in the interpretation of the SHARAD radar data.

Recently, the Cassini RADAR was used to sound hydrocarbon lakes and seas on Saturn’s moon Titan. Since the initial discovery of echoes from the seabed

This paper presents a comparative study of two algorithms for detecting and analyzing the characteristic shapes of reflection obtained as a result of Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) scanning technology. The first algorithm is a sub-array processing method that uses direction-of arrival algorithms and the matched filter technique; this approach is implemented in SPOT-GPR (release 1.0), a new freeware tool for the detection and localization of targets in radargrams.