Symmetric observation of a buried target using multipolarimetic reverse-time migration

Unlike natural objects, man-made objects, including landmines, tend to be symmetric in shape. By means of symmetric argument, a symmetric object observed by radar will have a predictable response. This paper describes the concept of using sets of bi-static multipolarimetric radar observations to detect the presence of a landmine by exploiting the symmetric properties of the landmine. The study begins with simulating the response of a symmetrical target in a sandbox using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) algorithm. The simulated data is divided into several observation sets designed to detect the plane of symmetry of the buried target. A three-dimensional (3D) FDTD-based Reverse-Time Migration (RTM) method is used to synthesize the data sets to obtain sets of independent images. First, all images will be used to determine the presence of a target. Then, the images are configured in-group to detect the presence of the plane of symmetry.