Abstract: A conventional GPR system includes computer, network analyzer, rectangular coordinate robot, and a single antenna mode for transmission and reception, responding only to the co-polarization signal. However, we expect that more polarmetric information can be obtained. So we developed a full-polarimetric GPR system including computer, vector network analyzer, position controller, switch driver, and polarimetric multiple coverage antenna array. The arrangement of the antenna array consists of ten Vivaldi antennas oriented perpendicularly to each other that can obtain co-polarization and cross-polarization signals for each transmission. One group of experiment was performed. This group targeted to a metallic plate and a metallic dihedral. The result of this experiment shows that this GPR system with the proposed antenna array is capable of detecting the existence of buried targets, and the application of the polarimetric multiple coverage antenna array can improve the signal-to-noise ratio dramatically. We use Pauli polarimetric decomposition technique to obtain subsurface colour-coded reconstructed object images, which can be employed to interpret both the geometrical information and the scattering mechanism of the subsurface objects.

Key words: ground penetrating radar system, polarimetric, antenna array, multiple coverage