Novel integrated system calibration method for impulse ground penetrating radar

This paper proposes a new method of integrated system calibration that uses the transmitting and receiving signals from the impulse ground penetrating radar itself. In order to eliminate the influence from each subsystem or part including antenna, transmitter, receiver, signal processing circuits and transmission cables, two new calibration parameters that are different from the conventional S-parameters are introduced. The characteristic and influence of all parts in the transmitting and receiving channels are incorporated into the calibration equation through the new parameters. The calibration results of the radar detection data show that the new integrated system calibration can improve the quality of the data greatly in many aspects. It removes direct coupled waves, suppresses wave distortion and tail oscillation, and improves the quality of waveform and signal-clutter-ratios. It also compresses the pulse width and enhances resolution. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.