A preparatory study on subsurface exploration on Mars using GPR and microwave tomography

The exploitation of ground penetrating radar in Mars subsurface exploration is becoming assessed in remote sensing observations and is of timely interest for high resolution in situ prospecting of the first meters of the underground. In this framework, we deal with a novel processing approach based on microwave tomography. Aiming to achieve accurate and reliable "images" of the investigated subsurface region in order to detect, localize and possibly determine the extent and the geometrical features of the embedded layers while reducing at the minimum possible the "interpretation" of the diagnostics result. The feasibility of the microwave tomographic approach has been tested in realistic cases dealing with conditions analogue to the Mars subsurface ones. In particular, we will present the tomographic reconstruction results achieved by experimental data collected in a field survey at Svalbard Islands (Norway) with a time-domain GPR. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.