Understanding GPR via a Simulator

GPR radargrams often have no resemblance to the subsurface structures over which the profile was recorded. Various factors including the innate design of the survey equipment and the complexity of electromagnetic propagation in the ground can disguise complex near surface earth structures recorded on GPR reflection profiles. A very useful way to understand the nature and content of GPR radargrams is to understand what components are needed to develop a basic simulator. The simulator would provide a means to predict radargrams made across candidate models of the ground and help to explain how buried target structures get translated into recorded reflection profiles. The simulator can help to better comprehend the limitations of this remote sensing method, but also to highlight the capabilities of GPR and where this exploration tool and in what subsurface environments that it can and cannot function optimally.