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An Imaging HF GPR using Stationary Antennas: Experimental Validation over the Antarctic Ice Sheet
Alice Le Gall, Valrie Ciarletti, Jean-Jacques Berthelier, Alain Reineix, Christophe Guiffaut, Richard Ney, Franois Dolon, Sbastien Bonaim

Abstract Ground penetrating radars (GPR) are commonly used on the Earth to probe the subsurface and the moderate mass and power resources they require make them a most useful tool in planetary exploration. In most cases, GPR need to be moved and perform soundings at various locations to retrieve the image of the underground layers or reectors. Yet, TAPIR (Terrestrial And Planetary Imaging Radar) is an innovative stationary HF GPR that allows to image the reectors in the subsurface through the processing of measured electric and magnetic components of the reected waves. This instrument was originally developed in the frame of the NetLander project to perform deep soundings of the Martian subsurface and has been tested during a validation campaign on the Antarctic ice sheet. Combining the corresponding observations and numerical simulations of the operation of the instrument we demonstrate its imaging capability and evaluate its performances. Index Terms Ground Penetrating Radar, deep soundings, subsurface, wave propagation, FDTD, ice, Mars

I. I NTRODUCTION Imaging underground layers and reectors with ground penetrating radars (GPR) is usually achieved by performing soundings from a number of positions. These positions may be either disposed along an approximately linear 1D path over the surface to provide underground proles over long distances or organized in a 2D network over the surface to provide 3-D proles of the subsurface in a more restricted volume beneath the surface. However, even on Earth, moving a GPR and its antennas over complex terrain may be difcult (especially when operating at frequencies in the order of magnitude of a few MHz, when the size of the antenna exceeds tens of meters) while it is readily impossible in the case of planetary subsurface exploration from stationary landers. Our objective was thus to develop an innovative GPR with imaging capability that could be used from a stationary position. This work was initially performed in the frame of the former NetLander project lead by CNES that aimed at exploring the subsurface and deep interior of Mars. This project called for landing 4 small geophysical stations spaced in longitude and at low latitudes, each of these landers including a GPR. A major goal of the radar was to search for liquid water reservoirs that, according to geological models of Mars [14] [37], may be found at kilometric depths. An HF frequency of operation was thus selected; it allows to reach such large depths on Mars due to the low moisture content of the soil. To overcome the problem faced by a stationary instrument, an innovative imaging technique was proposed [8] [9]. Such a radar may also be of great interest on Earth, for example to probe the Antarctic ice cap and to map the bedrock at

depths of hundreds to thousands of meters. A slightly enhanced version of the NetLander radar called TAPIR (Terrestrial And Planetary Imaging Radar) was thus developed to be operated in the RANETA (RAdar of NEtlander in Terre Adlie) validation campaign in Antarctica [10]. In this paper we present the method for local subsurface imaging based on the processing of GPR pulses emitted from a set of stationary antennas and use the data obtained in the Antarctic to validate the concept of the radar and demonstrate its performances. We postpone to a further paper the "geological" analysis of the results to retrieve detailed information on the topographic features of the bedrock. In the present stage of our work, sounding the Antarctic bedrock has the advantage of providing a simplied geologic target which helps in validating the principle of operation and data processing in a natural environment devoid of too much complexity. As described in the above mentioned references, the use of stationary antennas to image a conical volume beneath the radar requires the ability to resolve the parameters that determine the direction, range and amplitude of the returning signals. A similar objective was pursued by Moran et al. but using a different techniques based on the use of a subset of antennas. In our case we only use two crossed dipoles for transmission and reception as well as a magnetic antenna that provides the 3 magnetic components of the reected waves. Our rst objective is to resolve from these data the range and direction of the returning waves that provide the depth and inclination of the facets of the bedrock that reects or diffract the transmitted waves. Our experimental work was backed by numerical simulations using a FDTD code that helps in interpreting and validating the eld observations. Section II is devoted to a brief description of TAPIR, its modes of operation and the RANETA campaign. The description of the test sites is given in section III. We describe the data processing method in section IV and the analysis of several soundings is presented in section V. A discussion of the results and some indications of future works are given in the last section (section VI). II. D ESCRIPTION A. Instrument Description The detailed description of the instrument and of its principle of operation can be found in [9] and [13]. They are briey reviewed in this section. 1) Principle of the GPR: The TAPIR is an impulse polarimetric ground penetrating radar. It was specically designed for large penetration depths of more than 1km. The radar
OF

TAPIR

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operates in the HF range at low frequencies, from 2 to 6MHz. The pulse lengths can be varied to optimize the sounding of the subsurface at different depths. The shortest pulses are 0.5s long, corresponding to a range resolution of 60 meters and a blind zone of 70 meters. The longest pulses are BPSK coded 10s pulses to probe the underground at the largest possible depth, beyond 1km on Mars. In order to reduce interferences and ambiant noise, a bi-phasing scheme with alternated polarities of the transmitted waveforms is used at transmission. To increase the radar sensitivity, coherent additions, up to 224 , are performed. Since the NetLander GPR was to operate from a xed lander in a mono-static mode, it was not possible to rely on the usual mode of operation of ground penetrating radars while obtains depth proles by making a series of soundings over a network of positions [4] [28] [12] [40]. Our GPR provides a simplied imaging of the subsurface reectors by measuring not only the propagation delay but also the direction of arrival of the reected waves in order to determine both the distance and the orientation of the reectors. This innovative concept derives the direction of the propagation vector of the returning wave from the measured values of 5 components of the wave eld: 2 horizontal electric components and the 3 magnetic components. The GPR was thus equipped with two horizontal electrical dipoles, orthogonal to each other, and a magnetic antenna that could be oriented along 3 mutually orthogonal directions. Each electrical antenna consists of two colinearly opposed 35m long resistively loaded quarter-wave monopoles [39] with a resistive prole [22]. These antennas offer a broad enough frequency bandwidth to allow the transmission of short pulses without signicant distortion except maybe off axis as shown by [2]. They are laid on the surface along directions that will be taken as the horizontal (Ox) and (Oy) axes with (Oz) being the ascending vertical axis (see gure 1). They are made of simple isolated copper wires of 1mm in diameter. Given this dimension the antennas cannot be shielded and so surface clutter cannot be avoided. The radiating characteristics are presented in the following section. The magnetic antenna is a HF search coil with a central frequency of 3MHz and a 2MHz bandwidth at 3dB. The ability of using the two electric antennas to transmit and to receive allows full polarimetric measurements, a capability of great interest because waves reected from inclined and/or rough interfaces or discrete reectors will be subject to depolarisation. Polarimetric data bring useful information on the geometrical properties of the reectors. In addition to the normal mono-static radar mode of operation, several other modes were anticipated on the NetLander mission. In particular, one mode was dedicated to the determination of the frequency dependance of the antenna impedance by measuring the current owing through the electric antenna for several CW signals at different frequencies. This impedance depends on the electromagnetic characteristics of the shallow subsurface. In a passive mode, the antenna can also be used to measure the HF radio-electric ambient noise and detect EM emissions from possible electrical discharges in the atmosphere. In such a mode, it was also forseen to use the

instrument as a riometer (Relative Ionospheric Opacity Meter) to measure the absorption of galactic HF emission in the lower ionosphere. 2) Antenna Characteristics: The radiation pattern of the electric antennas of TAPIR was computed by modeling it as a coherent array of elementary dipoles excited by currents of different magnitudes and phases, as shown schematically in gure 1. The 34 resistors introduced in each monopole are located every meter [22]. The rst element is directly connected to the feeding point. The resulting electromagnetic eld is the sum of the elementary elds generated by each 1msegment and is expressed by formula (1). Figure 2 displays the calculated far-eld radiation pattern of an electric antenna laid on pure ice at the frequency of 2MHz. As usual, the E-plane is the vertical plane containing the antenna and the H-plane is the vertical plane perpendicular to the antenna, at the center of the antenna. The far-eld radiation pattern of an interfacial innitesimal dipole [1] [16] is also showed in gure 2. 35 1 E0 (r, , ) 2Ii 1 cos(k(i ) sin cos ) EM (r, , ) = 2 I0 2 i=1 (1) and are the spherical coordinates dened in gure 1. E0 is the eld generated by a current I0 owing through an elementary dipole located at the driving point or current feed point i.e. at the center of the antenna. Its expression was given 1 in [16]. Ii 2 is the current owing in the 1 meter-segment n i. As shown in [22], Ii 1 depends on the electromagnetic 2 characteristics of the soil on which the antenna is laid as well as on the resistive prole of the dipole. Its value for each segment can be derived from the theoretical expression given in [22] or computed with the numerical code. k is the propagation vector of the waves in the medium surrounding the antenna i.e the interface between the air and the ice. As shown by [38], the propagation vector of the wave at an interface can be approximated by:
2 2 2 2 kair + kice 1/2 k0 + k1 1/2 = (2) 2 2 where k0 = kair is the wave number in the upper media and k1 = kice in the lower one. The computed radiation pattern differs from that of an innitesimal dipole mainly by being narrower in the E-plane. The H-plane patterns are practically identical. Both patterns exhibit a three-lobe structure with sharp nulls in the E-plane. These results are similar to those given in [3] which used a pulse excitation and a cosine current distribution. Yet, in practice, these nulls may be less pronounced and the E-plane beam approximately 70 wide. This wide radiation pattern provides a large angular eld of view for the radar which thus illuminates reectors or interfaces that are signicantly away from the vertical direction. The radiated waveforms are assumed to be identical to those received. Several examples are given later.

k=

III. THE RANETA EXPERIMENT The RANETA campaign was organized under the auspices of the French IPEV (Institut polaire franais Paul-Emile Victor) near the cap Prudhomme station in Terre Adlie (139.9E,

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Fig. 1. Schematic view of a resistively loaded monopole along (Ox+ ) used to establish the expression of the far-eld radiation pattern. Ri are the resistors located every meter. I(2i1)/2 are the currents owing in each segment of the monopole. In the symmetric monopole oriented along (Ox ), elementary currents are identical but ow in the opposite direction. The angles and are shown.

0 330 300

30 60 0.5 1 90 300

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270 240 210 150 180

270 240 210 180 150

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120

Elementary dipole laid on pure cold ice: |rE0| RANETA resistively damped dipole laid on pure cold ice: |rEM|

Fig. 2. Far eld radiation patterns of an interfacial elementary dipole and of the resistively loaded dipoles laid on pure cold ice at a frequency of 2MHz. The radiation pattern of the loaded antenna is more directionnal in the Eplane. Yet, both radiation patterns have a maximum in the vertical direction and illuminate a wide area of the underground.

electrical conductivity in this temperature range are typically 5 S/m. HF waves thus experience little r 3.2 and 2 10 attenuation in ice and sounding depths of several kilometers are achievable. The wavelengths corresponding to the frequencies of operation of the radar are much greater than the average thickness of the small scale layering (isochrone layers) that corresponds to the yearly accumulation of snow with typical dimensions of a few centimeters. We neglect also potential reexions on internal layers due to volcanic events. Thus, the propagating medium can be considered as homogeneous. The bedrock is mainly composed of gneiss with a dielectric constant in the range 4-9 [35], probably close to 7. No information on the bedrock topography is available over the area where the soundings have been performed. However, according to the BEDMAP data base [24] its average elevation lies close to the sea level and often slightly below in the rst 50km of the ice cap. The highly irregular topography of the islands around Dumont dUrville and on the coast near Cap Prudhomme station suggests that the bedrock surface is similary irregular.

66.68S) in January-February 2004 [10] at moderate distances from the coast where the bedrock lies between 200 and B. RANETA Observations 1200m from the ice surface. A. Ice and Bedrock Characteristics The electromagnetic properties of ice as a function of temperature and frequency are well documented. They have been recently reviewed in [17]. Up to 600MHz, the electromagnetic parameters are practically independent of frequency. Between 10 C and 30 C, the relative permittivity undergoes only negligible changes and the conductivity remains low, between 106 and 3 105 S/m. In the case of RANETA measurements, the temperature between the surface and the bedrock was estimated to be in the range from 10C to 20 C. Values of the relative dielectric constant and of the 1) Radar soundings: During the RANETA eld survey, 8 soundings of the ice sheet were performed at distances from the coast from 5km to 45km with altitudes above the sea level from 285m to 1100m. The ice-bedrock interface was detected for all the soundings with clear signals on both electric and magnetic antennas. In good agreement with [24], the ice thicknesses measured between the coast and 45km inward are consistent with a bedrock close to the sea level. In several occasions more than one echo was detected. A full set of data (5 components of the electromagnetic eld) was recorded for 4 of the 8 soundings and we present in this paper a data processing method which allows the various echoes to

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be distinguished and to determine the orientation and position of the reecting facets of the bedrock. 2) Antenna impedance measurements: The quantitative analysis of the GPR soundings requires the knowledge of the geoelectric characteristics ( r , ) of the subsurface. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the subsurface can be considered homogeneous and thus the average geoelectric characteristics can be taken equal to those of the shallow subsurface. These parameters, needed to convert propagation delays into distances, can be derived from the measurements of the antenna impedance. As indicated above, when an antenna is lying on the surface, its current distribution, hence its impedance, depends on the electrical parameters of the ground and this coupling can be used to retrieve the electromagnetic parameters of the subsurface. A detailed study based on the numerical FDTD method was recently performed by Le Gall et al. [22] for the antennas which were used in the RANETA experiment. They show that the impedance is controlled by the shallow subsurface within 2m from the surface. During the RANETA eld survey, the impedance of each dipole was measured from 400kHz to 8MHz, a range which covers most of the frequency spectrum of the radar pulses. Figure 3 displays the best t between the measured and the modeled real and imaginary parts of the antenna impedance corresponding to r 3 and 105 S/m. These values are in very good agreement with published ones (see section II-B-1). The estimated error in r is 0.25. The conductivity is obtained with less accuracy, with an error of 3 105 S/m. Its value is larger than those given in [17]. A possible reason stems from the fact that the shallow ice layer is warmer than the deeper layers and may even contain liquid water. In the following the complex permittivity is dened by: j = 0 cr = 0 r j , (3) c = 0 where 0 = 8.854 1012 F/m, j = 1 and = 2f . IV. DATA PROCESSING The objective of the data analysis is to sort the echoes and compute their propagation times and directions. Prior to resolving the range and direction of the different detected echoes, data must be denoised and the measured magnetic components must be corrected from a parasitic effect that will be described in this section. A. Filtering and calibration

In addition, the only way to obtain true electric eld values from the output voltages at the receiver is to use a numerical model of the antenna operation. On the contrary, the magnetic components are directly converted into Teslas from the calibration curves of the magnetic antenna. B. Correction of the Measured Magnetic Field The measured magnetic eld components are the sum of (i) the true magnetic component Br of the reected waves and (ii) the magnetic eld BA induced by the currents owing in the electric antennas when excited by the the electric eld of the reected wave. The sum of 2 induced magnetic elds must be removed from the measurements to get the actual vertical magnetic component of the reected waves (see gure 5). With a signicantly good approximation, BA can be com puted from the simple model BA of a current in an innite electric wire given by Amperes law such that: 0 |I| (in Tesla) BA e (4) 2d This approximation was checked numerically and is understable since the magnetic antenna was located close to the center of the dipoles and directly on the soil. The induced magnetic eld BA is thus in the plane normal to the dipole so vertical at the location of the magnetic antenna. Therefore the measured vertical magnetic component must be corrected. Since the magnetic antenna is very close (less than 2 meters) to the electric antenna, the measured magnetic eld of the reected waves has in practice no phase shift with respect to the electric eld and thus with Br . Therefore, we used the co-polar and cross-polar measurements from the electric dipoles to infer the current owing along the two antennas. In most soundings, the copolar signal is larger than the crosspolar one hence the current travelling in the transmitting electric antenna Ico is larger than the current in the orthogonal antenna Icross . As illustrated by gure 5, the induced vertical magnetic

Figure 4(a) shows an example of a full set of data. We have applied a low frequency ltering in order to suppress the high frequency part of the electronic and ambient noise and a Fig. 5. Above view of the electric and magnetic antennas conguration Wiener lter allowed us to improve signicantly the signal to of operation. This gure indicates how the currents owing though the 2 orthogonal electric dipoles induce two parasitic components of the magnetic noise ratio. elds: Bco and Bcross along two opposite directions. Comparison of the transmitted waveform at 4MHz (see gure 4(b)) with the received signal, in particular with the component can be computed from the formula: copolar component Ex (see gure 4(a)), shows that the signal 0 |Ico | |Icross | did not distort during propagation and reection, r and are (in Tesla) ez (5) BA independent of frequency. 2 yM xM

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2500 2000 Re(Z )() 1500 1000 500 0 0 1 2 3 Frequency (Hz) 4 5 x 10 6

6

0
Measurements on the Antarctic continent Numerical simulation: =3, =10 S/m
r e 5

2000 Im(Z )() 4000 6000 8000 10000 0 1 2 3 Frequency (Hz) 4 5 x 10 6

6

Fig. 3. Real and imaginary parts of the measured and numerically computed antenna impedance as a function of frequency on the Antarctic ice sheet, during the RANETA campaign. Masurements were made with a network analyzer HP8753C. Simulations were conducted with a FDTD 3D code. The best t is obtained for the following electric characteristics: r = 3 and e = 105 S/m (see [22]).

Raw data 20 Ex 0 6 8 10 12 14 Ex 20 0.5 Ey 0 6 8 14 x 10 10 12 14 20 0 6 8

Wiener filter
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(a) February 1st , 2004 sounding, raw and Wiener ltered data. The GPR was operating at the central frequency of 4MHz in a transformer matching mode. The x-axis is the delay time in s, and the unit of the y-axis is mV at the output of the electric receivers and in Teslas for the magnetic channels.

(b) Waveforms of the antenna input potential at the central frequencies of operation 2, 3, 4MHz in mV. The length of each pulse is about 500ns.

Fig. 4.

Full set of data and transmitted waveforms.

where xM and yM are the horizontal coordinates of the which is also strongly inclined with respect to the horizontal location of the magnetic antenna in the (Oxyz) frame of plane and their vertical magnetic component may be of the reference dened by the electric dipoles. The currents Ico and same order of magnitude as BA . Icross are deduced from the measured voltages of the output of the electric antennas divided by the antenna impedance Za . V. DATA I NTERPRETATION : IMAGING OF THE SUBSURFACE The ratio between the vertical magnetic eld of reected waves and the induced magnetic eld BA depends on the inclination of the propagation vector of the reected waves. If the reecting interface is nearly horizontal, the magnetic eld of reected waves is also nearly horizontal and its vertical component is very weak compared to the induced magnetic eld BA . If reection occurs from a strongly inclined facet of the bedrock, the reected waves have a propagation vector A. Time of Arrival of the Echos versus Elevation above the Bedrock The times of arrival of the detected echos were determined by cross-correlating the received signals with the derivative of the transmitted waveform. For each sounding, we computed the average value of the delays obtained independently for different frequencies of operation and transmission polarisations. The standard deviation provides an estimate of the irregular

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topography of the subsurface. These delays can be converted predicted and measured electromagnetic eld (corresponding to the bedrock reections) agree quite well which indicates into distance according to the relation: that the size of the reecting facets must be close to the size ctd (6) of the Fresnel zone and that the propagation medium can be d= 2 r1 considered homogeneous; the Kirchhoff approximation is thus where r1 is the relative permittivity of the ice. valid. Nevertheless, some of the observed weaker echos might Figure 6 displays the distances of the rst (and usually) be due to diffraction processes on the wedges of the bedrock main reector from the radar along the RANETA soundings large scale topography. In such case, we should be able to track. These distances may differ from the actual depths of the determine the direction of arrival of these diffracted waves reecting facets since some of them may be out-of-plane. The too [13] and to take the diffracting structures into account in altitude of each sounding site is also indicated. imaging the subsurface. With a mono-static radar, the detected reected waves arise mainly from normal (specular) reections on one or several 1200 facets (in case of multiple echoes). To compute the returning Altitude above the sea level wave vector kr one possible solution could be to derive the 1100 Distance of the main subsurface reflector from the radar missing vertical electrical component from: 02/26 1000
900 800 meters 700 600 500 400 300
01/31 01/22 01/29 02/04 02/05 01/30 01/23 02/01 01/24

200

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Distance from Cap Prudhomme station along the track (km)

45

Fig. 6. Measured distances between the bedrock and the source at each site along the RANETA survey track. 8 soundings where performed during 10 days. Altitudes above the sea level of each site are also indicated.

In good agreement with [24], the bedrock appears to be located close to or a few tens of meters under the sea level. The large standard deviation recorded on the 30th of January suggests a very irregular hilly topography of the bedrock. B. Determination of the Direction of the Propagation Vector The method to retrieve the direction of propagation of the reected waves is based on a comparison between the measured components Ex , Ey , Bx , By and Bz and a theoretical expression of the electromagnetic eld obtained for the reection from an inclined facet. 1) Theoretical modeling: As shown in [11], the far-eld limit is < 100m in the ice at 2MHz. Thus, for all the soundings discussed in this paper, the reection of the transmitted waves occurs in the far-eld region. In these conditions we consider the reections to be locally plane waves with the incident electric and magnetic elds Ei and Bi perpendicular to each other and to the propagation vector ki . The large wavelengths of operation of the radar allow to consider that the bedrock surface roughness has no effect. Moreover, we assume that the waves reect on a plane surface with large enough dimensions so that diffraction at the edges can be neglected. This hypothesis was prompted by the result of a stringent computation of the budget power: it shows that the

Brx Erx + Bry Ery (7) Brz c and to use the relation: kr = n1 Er Br . Er and Br are the returning electric and magnetic elds. However, this simple method is precluded in most cases since the reecting facets are often weakly inclined and, as a consequence, the reected waves propagate close to the ascending vertical. The received vertical magnetic component Brz is thus small which can entail large errors in the computed value Erz . Using equation (1) which provides a theoretical analytical expression of the far-eld is also impractical due to the presence of deep minima between the main lobe and the secondary ones, which may yield computational issues for some congurations. Also, the true radiation pattern minima between the primary lobe and the sidelobes may be less pronounced than the theoretical one making the expression (1) inaccurate. We have thus developed a different method using a more general expression of the electromagnetic eld. Its principle can be described as follows. We let ( , , ) be the reference frame and and , the ex ey ez angles dening the direction of arrival of the reected waves kr (see gure 7(a)) are = ( , kr ) and = ( , krh ) where z x kr is the horizontal component of the reected wave vector h kr : sin cos kr = sin sin . (8) cos Erz =

As depicted in gure 7(b), we dene a new frame of reference (OXY Z) where Z is along kr , X is obtained by a rotation of x around Z (hence x1 ) followed by a rotation around y1 and Y is in the horizontal plane perpendicular to (OXZ). In the (OXY ) plane, E makes an angle with (OX). The reected elds are then given in (Oxyz) by: cos cos cos sin sin Er (r, t) = E0 f (...) cos cos sin + sin cos (9) cos sin and f (...) = f (t, d,
1 , 2 , )

2d e g(kr r (t )), (10) 2d

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(a) Schematic view of the GPR in Terre Adlie and of the reference frame. The electrical dipoles are lying on the ice and dene the x and y-axis. Fig. 7. Notations and frames of reference.

(b) Frames and angles of reference.

where E0 is the amplitude of the transmitted signal, d is the distance between the radar and the reecting facet, g is the waveform of the transmitted signal, is the coefcient of reection on the ice-bedrock interface, = 2d r1 /c is the propagation time of the wave, is the coefcient of attenuation dened by: 1 0 (11) = 1 2 0 r1

electric signal with the reference waveform at the transmitted frequency. However, since we used simultaneously the electric and magnetic channels with different delays in the electronics, we did not use this method but kept the distance to be determined together with the other parameters. We are thus left with 4 unknowns: d, , and , and 5 non linear equations from equations (9) (without the analytical expression of Erz ) and (13). An iterative procedure based on the minimization of the least square error between theoretical and n1 Br = kr Er . (12) and observed electromagnetic eld components was used to c infer the desired parameters. Lastly we accounted for the refraction of the wave at the r1 , 1 and 0 are the electric relative permittivity, electric conductivity and magnetic permeability of ice, 2 is the di- exit from the ice. Vertical and horizontal angles, and , of inclination of the detected subsurface facet were derived from electric constant of the bedrock. the computed values of and from: Hence, sin sin cos cos cos sin E0 and = (15) = arcsin h(...) sin cos sin + cos cos Br (r, t) = r1 Z1 sin sin The refraction prevented us from determining the actual (13) value of vertical inclinations that exceed the critical angle where c = sin1 (1/ r1 ). Beyond this value, waves exit from the 2d e w(kr r (t )) (14) ice with a direction parallel to the interface as anticipated h(...) = h(t, d, 1 , 2 , ) = 2d by Goos and Hnchen [18] (the Goos-Hnchen effect is also c and Z1 = = n1 is the impedance of the ice. The quantity responsible for the existence of sidelobes in the radiation 1 pattern of a dipole in the vinicity of an interface). At the w is the waveform of the magnetic signal. 2) Implementation of the method: The unknown attenuation interface air/ice, c is equal to 34 . factor can be eliminated by using values of the electric and magnetic components that are normalized with respect to a C. Validation of the Method on Simulated Data reference waveform. The reference waveform is extracted from XLIM1 has developed a 3D FDTD (Finite Difference Time the signal and takes into account the distortions induced by Domain) code called TEMSI-FD for a wide domain of applithe amplier, the coupling between its output and the antenna cations. A detailed description of this TEMSI-FD can be found as well as those in the reception channel. As mentioned in section III-C-1, the propagation time , hence the distance 1 Formely the IRCOM, Institut de Recherche en Communications Optique d, can be derived from the cross-correlation of the received et Micro-ondes (Limoges)

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in [25], [11] and [5]. We have used it to perform numerical simulations of the operation of the radar in simplied or realistic environments. The simulations used two different congurations of the bedrock interface, one located at a depth of 400m and the second one at 700m. They are shown in gures 8(a) and 9(a) where the directions of the expected specular reections are indicated. The dimensions of the computational box in the three orthogonal directions (Ox), (Oy), (Oz) are respectively (300m, 300m, 400m) and (500, 500, 700m). The mesh size is 1 meter in all directions which is small enough to prevent numerical dispersion. In modeling the ice we have neglected its conductivity and set its permittivity equal to 3.2. The bedrock is substituted by a perfectly reecting metal. This does not modify the relative magnitudes of the components of the EM eld of the reected waves; hence does not introduce any error in the retrieval of their direction of arrival. 1) Simulation 1: single reector case: The bedrock is modeled as a single inclined facet with a normal dened by = 60 and = 10 . Figure 8(b) compares the TEMSIFD simulated data at 4MHz and the electromagnetic eld components derived from the analysis described in section VB.1. There is obviously a very good agreement between these two sets of curves. The adjusted parameters inferred from the optimal t are: td = 4.325s hence d 363m, = 61 , = 9.9475. They are consistent with the actual parameters of the facet. It must be noted that these ts were obtained by minimizing the least square errors between the 5 simulated and theoretical components of the electromagnetic eld: Ex , Ey , Bx , By and Bz . Nevertheless, it gives a good result for the vertical electric component Ez which adds to the validation of the method. Tests were conducted by introducing conductive losses ( = 105 S/m instead of 0S/m) and have shown that the derived geometric parameters, , and d, remain unchanged. The error on the estimation of and can stem from two sources: the nite steps on , and used to minimize the rms deviation the inaccuracy of the measurements due to ambient noises, couplings, waves superpositions... As far as simulations are concerned, data can be regarded as unimpaired by any noise. As aforementioned, the error function D( , ) illustrated by gure 8(c) exhibits a global minimum ( = 10 and = 61 ). The rms deviation is clearly less sensitive to than to thus the uncertainity on the estimated value of is larger. 2) Simulation 2: multiple reectors case: In the second conguration, the bedrock interface consists of 2 facets with their normals inclined at 26 and 17 with respect to the vertical axe and rotated at 45 from (Ox). A third horizontal facet is located between these two as illustrated in gure 9(a). In order to increase the time difference between the 3 echoes, the propagation velocity was decreased by taking a relative permittivity of 9 in place of 3.2. Three waves can then be easily discriminated: (i) wave 1 arises from the facet inclined at 26 , (ii) wave 2 corresponds to a reection on the facet inclined at 17 , (iii) wave 3 originates from the reection on the plateau between the two inclined facets. Wave 1 is expected to exit

from the subsurface with an inclination of 90 with respect to the vertical since 26 > |c | 19.5 where c is the critical angle of refraction. Indeed, according to the Snell-Descartes laws, the energy must be totally reected downward at the interface between ice and air. Yet, Goos and Hnchen had demonstrated that a wave can exit from a more refringent medium (ice) to a less refringent one (air) when the critical angle is exceeded [18] [32] [31]. Such a wave, sometimes existing as a lateral wave, is evanescent i.e. conned to the interface between the two media. It travels along the surface before diving again into the more refringent area. The derived geometric parameters are indicated in the gures 9(b), 9(c) and 9(d) where we have shown the mean square deviation for each echo. , and d are quite close to the expected values. The errors made on the amplitudes of the various components (arising mainly from the fact that the 3 echos are not well separated) and the sensitivity of D( , ) to the horizontal angle account for the error on the estimate of . The error on remains small. Supplementary simulations have shown that the uncertainties on the estimate of the angular parameters and increase as the reecting buried facet becomes more horizontal. This example features three interesting events that are expected in actual soundings: 1) a reection arising from an interface with an inclination larger than c : as anticipated by Goos and Hnchen [18], the wave at the exit from the ice is grazing and the actual inclination of the facet will stay unknown. One will only be able to conclude that: c or c . Yet, the horizontal inclination can be determined with a good accuracy. 2) a wave reaching the surface with a quasi-normal incidence: this occurs when the radar is located just above a horizontal reector. is no longer dened and the poor sensitivity of the mean square error D on leads to errors up to a few degrees on its estimated value. 3) a wave propagating along a direction between 0 and c : in this case, both and can be determined with reasonable accuracy. The accuracy on will be always better than the accuracy on . D. Application to RANETA Data 1) Single reector case: On the 1st of February, a single echo was clearly detected on both electric and magnetic components. Table I provides the derived characteristics of the returning wave (time delay and direction of arrival). The propagation distance d can be determined from the time delay through relation (6). Taking into account the vertical angle , the retrieved depth is h = d cos 700m which compares reasonably well with the altitude of the radar above the sea level (641m). The derived angles for the 3 different central operating frequencies are in good agreement with each another. It must be noted that the values of are consistent with the fact that the highest signals were observed on the monopoles oriented parallel to (Ox ) and (Oy + ) which implies that: 90 < < 180 . The vertical inclination is quite high, 24 . As indicated in section III-A, it is likely that the

SUBMISSION TO IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING

0.5 0 0.5 1 3 0.05 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 x 10 7

6

Ey

Ex

0 3 0.2 0 0.2 0.02 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 x 10 7

6

0.05 Ez

3.5

4.5

5.5

6.5 x 10

7
6

Bx

0 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5 x 10 7

6

0.02

0.5 0 0.5 1 3 0.5 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5

By

7 x 10
6

Bz

0 0.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 s * * Numerical Simulation: : 60, : 10

* *

6.5 x 10

7
6

Fitting theoritical Model: td: 4.325s, : 61, : 9.9475

(a) FDTD simulation 1: the GPR is laid on the surface. In the subsurface, a facet showing the following inclinations: = 60 and = 10 is capped by 400m of non lossy ice ( r = 3.2)

(b) The electric and magnetic components of the reected wave as a function of time are shown as full gray lines. Using the theoretical expressions (9) and (13), the best t (minimizing the least square error between the simulated data and the theoretical model) is obtained for the following input parameters: td = 4.325s, = 61 , = 9.9475 (dotted black lines)

(c) Standard deviation between simulations and theory as a function of and . It is normalized by its minimum. Fig. 8. Validation of the method developed to image the subsurface on FDTD simulated data corresponding to a single buried inclined facet.

bedrock topography is highly irregular and may well account for this value. Figure 10(a) compares between the measured components of the EM eld for different central frequencies with the signals computed using the derived parameters. The good consistency between these curves is very clear. Fits are also good for the component Ez , the vertical electric eld obtained using formula (7). An appropriate median lter was applied to avoid numerical aberrance. The worst tted component, Ey , is logically the weakest one. The mean square deviation between the theoretical model and the data is computed at each frequency as a function of and . Figure 10(b) corresponds to a central frequency of 4MHz. It clearly exhibits a global minimum. In the analysis of actual sounding data, the main source of error lies in the determination of the induced vertical component of the

TABLE I C HARACTERISTICS OF
THE ECHO MEASURED ON THE 1st OF

F EBRUARY 3, 4MH Z .

2004 DEDUCED FROM THE PROPOSED METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION AT

THREE DIFFERENT CENTRAL FREQUENCIES OF OPERATION 2,

f 4MHz 3MHz 2MHz

td 9.34s 9.24s 9.015s

d 783m 775m 756m

h 717m 698m 701m

109 105 105

23.7 25.7 25.3

magnetic eld. Figure 11(a) shows the resulting errors on the estimated angular parameters, and , as a function of the error on the corrected component Bz . In may be seen that even in the case of a very poor accuracy on the amplitude of Bz , uncertainities on and remain reasonably low, in particular for the second one.

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(a) FDTD simulation 2: the GPR is laid on the surface. Beneath 700m of a dielectric material ( r = 9), in the = 45 -plane, the subsurface exibits 3 facets. Their vertical inclinations are the followings: 1 = 26 , 2 = 17 and 3 = 0 .

(b) Standard deviation used to identify the rst echo normalized by its minimum. The derived parameters correspond to the minimum of the error: = c and = 46 . The input parameters in the FDTD code are: 1 = 26 > c and = 45 .

(c) Standard deviation used to identify the second echo normalized by its minimum. The derived parameters correspond to the minimum of the error: = 16.691 and = 50 . The input parameters in the FDTD code are: 2 = 17 and = 45 . Fig. 9.

(d) Standard deviation used to identify the third echo normalized by its minimum. The vertical angle corresponding to the minimum of the error is = 3.65 . The input vertical angle in the FDTD code is: 3 = 0 . is not dened.

Validation of the method developed to image the subsurface on FDTD simulated data showing 3 echoes.

2) Multiple reectors case: In a number of soundings, multiple echoes were detected. In particular, on the 4th of February, at least 3 echoes can be discriminated. Two of these are less intense at central frequencies of 2 and 3MHz. This can be explained by an improvement in the quality of the measurements when the frequency, hence the number of halfcycles of the transmitted signal, increases. For this reason, we focused as in gure 4(a) our analysis on data measured at the central frequency of 4MHz. Table II displays the results derived from the analysis of each echo. The elevation above the sea level of the radar was 373m.

Figure 11(b) displays the standard deviations on and as a function of the error on the amplitude of each component for the cases presented in this paper. Standard deviations with respect to the actual input values of and increase linearly with this error. The method of analysis showed here thus yields better results when the multiple echoes are separated enough in time. VI. C ONCLUSION
AND

D ISCUSSION

This paper intended to present a method allowing to identify the location and inclination of the reecting structures of When waves have close time of arrival, their amplitudes the subsurface detected by a HF ground penetrating radar can be slightly enhanced or reduced (due to interference). operating with stationary antennas. The methodology was

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4MHz t :9.34 s *:109 *:23.7 3MHz t :9.24 s *:105 *:25.7 2MHz t :9.015 s *:105 *:25.3
d d d

2 0 9 10 11 2 0.02 0 0.02 9 10 11 0.5 0 9 10 11 0.5 0.5 0 9 10 11 0.5 1 0 9 10 11 1 1 0 9 10 s 11 1 9 10 11 s Envelop 9 10 11 9 10 11 9 10 11 9 10 11 9 10 11

2 0 2 0.02 0 0.02 9 0.5 0 0.5 0.5 0 0.5 1 0 1 1 0 1 9 10 s 11 9 10 11 9 10 11 9 10 11 10 11 9 10 11

Ex Ey Ez Bx By Bz

0 2 0.02 0 0.02 1 0 1 0.5 0 0.5 1 0 1 1 0 1

Measured signal

Fitting signal

(a) Comparison of the data collected on the 1st of February 2004 in Terre Adlie at the three operating frequencies 2, 3 and 4MHz with the best ts derived from the proposed method. The vertical electric component Ez was reconstructed with the ve other components of the electromagnetic eld using the formula (7). The values of the angles providing the best ts at different frequencies are consistent with one another.

(b) Mean square error on the identication of the echo detected on February, 1, 2004. The derived parameter correspond to the minimum of the error: = 23.711 and = 109 . Fig. 10. Application of the method to data collected on the 1st of February 2004 TABLE II C HARACTERISTICS OF THE 3 ECHOS MEASURED ON THE 4th
OF

F EBRUARY 2004 DEDUCED FROM THE PROPOSED METHOD OF IDENTIFICATION AT THE 4MH Z . Echo 3
2 -31.9

CENTRAL FREQUENCY OF OPERATION

Echo 1 d1 410m 1 140

1 -15.215

Echo 2 d2 559m 2 91 d3 624m

3 90

3 3 < c = 34

successfully validated on simulated data for this purpose. Numerical simulations were conducted using a FDTD code able to model complex propagating media. The method was then applied to real data collected in the framework of the RANETA campaign during which a series of soundings were performed over the Antarctic ice sheet in Terre Adlie. In several occasions more than one echo has been detected and the developed data processing proved its ability to disentangle the origin of the various echos and to retrieve the vertical and horizontal inclinations of the reecting facets of the ice-bed

rock. The derived results show good consistency. A stringent investigation on the error in our estimates of the angular parameters was conducted. It appeared that main uncertainties stem from the range resolution of the instrument since the developed method requires separated echos. A signal processing technique allowing to improve data resolution is currently investigated. Only applied to atmospheric radars until now, the frequency domain interferometry [29] [23] [36] is a method inspired by the spatial domain interferometry that is likely to bring strong improvements in the processing.

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20

*=25.3 *=105 *=15.215 *=140 *=31.9 *=91

6 *=15.215 *=140 *=31.9 *=91 *=25.3 *=105 2

std(*) ()
40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50

*()

0 20 50 10 5

0 3

10

12

14

std(*) ()
40 30 20 10 0 10 20 30 40 50

*()

2 1 0

0 5 10 50

Error on Hz (%)

10

12

14

Error on each component(%)

(a) Uncertainties on and as a function of the error (in %) on the corrected component Hz . Fig. 11.

(b) Standard deviation on and as a function of the error on the amplitude of each component (in %).

Uncertainties on the estimation of and for 2 sources of error.

In order to retrieve the direction of arrival of the backscattered waves, we assumed that the measured echos arose from reections on large facets (with scale comparable to the Fresnel zone) of the subsurface. The overall power budget showed that this simple assumption was acceptable. Yet, it may entail errors in the reconstruction of the bedrock. To correctly image the conical volume beneath the stationary antennas of TAPIR, pulse returns have to be resolved not only in range and direction but also in amplitude to take into account the small reecting structures. For this purpose, future investigations may rely on the work of Beckmann and Spezzichino [6] that assumes that facet reections strength is governed by both the local Fresnel reection coefcient and the size of the facet. We have also discarded the idea that waves could be due to diffraction on the edges of the bedrock. However, Ciarletti et al. [13] demonstated that, if so, the method still allows to determine their direction of propagation. We chose not to consider these waves because their amplitudes are 10 times lower that the amplitudes of the specular reections. Besides, we hypothesized that the ice sheet lying over the bedrock was homogeneous. However, several authors mentioned the presence of bright internal layers in the Antarctic ice sheet that can be a signicant source of interference in the frequency range of TAPIR [40] [21]. Acting as isochrones, these layers can be due to past atmospheric changes or volcanic eruptions and their brightness can locally rival bed echo amplitudes. Yet, internal layers are intermittent. In particular, they are often absent within ice streams. We ignore whether or not such bright layers exist along the sounding track of the RANETA survey but, once again, our work focused on the interaction with the bedrock and the power budget showed that if they do, their impact on the measured waves is weak. Future investigations will be dedicated to the study of the waves recorded before the bedrock response in order to determine their origine. Work is in progress to extend the reported studies to more realistic and detailed descriptions of the actual 3-D geometry of

the Antarctic bedrock structure. More rened processing will be developed but the preliminary results obtained with simple assumptions are quite promising. They exhibit the key role that ground penetrating radars can play in the effort of investigation of the Antarctic continent. They can provide information of prime interest to understand the processes involved in the dynamics and long-term evolution of the Antarctic polar cap and glaciers. In particular, ground penetrating radar soundings are among the most useful instruments to measure the ice thickness and reveal the Antarctic ice-bed rock topography. Such information is required to properly model the dynamical behaviour of the ice sheet and help predicting its future. The updated version of the NetLander GPR, TAPIR, has been proposed to y on board of the ESA ExoMars spacecraft (experiment EISS in the GEophysical Package of ExoMars). The subsurface exploration of Mars still arouses a great interest. This interest has been recently enhanced by the unprecedented observations of the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS) instrument, onboard the European Space Agencys Mars Express orbiter [30] [34] [20]. MARSIS has demonstrated its capability to detect structures and layers beneath the Martian surface. In particular, it provided a low-resolution map of the base of the Polar Layered Deposits, penetrating up to 3.7km the icerich upper layer of Martian South cap. Ground penetrating radar appears as a unique tool in planetary research to explore deep surbsurface. Other methods of investigation such as active seismic measurements, in spite of their extremely high interest, require large resources and a heavy operational logistics. MARSIS results allow to predict that TAPIR which operates in the same frequency range but from the surface and can perform a larger number of coherent additions will be able to reach deeper burried Martian structures. RANETA results also promp our expectations of the usefulness of such an instrument on board of a future mission to Europa. This Jovian satellite might hide a water ocean under an icy crust and ground penetrating radar soundings would be of very high interest.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank IPEV (Institut Paul-Emile Victor) who was in charge of the organization of the RANETA campaign and CNES for funding the development of the radar under grants 793/CNES/99/7947 and 737/CNES/00/826. We are very grateful to S.A. Arcone for his constructive review. R EFERENCES
[1] R.D. Annan, W.M. Waller, D.W. Strangway, J.R. Rossiter, J.D. Redman, and R.D. Watts, The electromagnetic response of a low-loss, 2-layer dielectric earth for horizontal electric dipole excitation, Geophysics, vol. 40(2), pp. 285-298, 1975 [2] S.A Arcone, Distortion of model subsurface radar pulses in complex dielectrics, Radio Science, vol. 16(5), pp. 855-864, 1981 [3] S.A Arcone, Numerical studies of the radiation patterns of resistively loaded dipoles, Journal of Applied Geophysics, vol. 33, pp. 39-52, 1995 [4] S.A Arcone, High resolution of glacial ice stratigraphy : A groundpenetrating radar study of Pegasus Runway, McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Geophysics, vol. 61(6), pp. 1653-1663, 1996 [5] G. Bauchet, Etude thorique et validation exprimentale de lanalyse lectromagntique dun radar destin au sondage du sous-sol Martien, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. de Limoges, Limoges, France, 2004 [6] P. Beckmann and A. Spizzichino, The scattering of electromagnetic waves from rough surfaces, T. Artech House, N.Y., 1963 [7] J.P. Berenger, A perfectly matched layer for the absorption of electromagnetic waves, J. Comput. Phys., vol. 114, pp. 185-200, 1994 [8] J.J. Berthelier, R. Ney, F. Costard, A. Meyer, B. Martinat, A. Reineix, T. Hansen, M. Bano, W. Kofman, F. Lefeuvre and P. Paillou, The GPR experiment on NetLander, Planet. Space Sci., vol. 48, pp. 1161-1180, 2000 [9] J.J. Berthelier, R. Ney, V. Ciarletti, B. Martinat, M. Hamelin, F. Costard, P. Paillou, C. Duvanaud, C. Nevejans, w. Kofman, J.G. Trotignon, G. Grandjean, M. Zamora and A. Nagy, GPR, a ground-penetrating radar for the NETLANDER mission, J. Geophys. Res., vol. 108(E4), 8027, doi:10.1029/2002JE001866, 2003 [10] J.J. Berthelier, S. Bonaim, V. Ciarletti, R. Clairquin, F. Dolon, A. Le Gall, D. Nevejans, R. Ney and A. Reineix, Initial results of the Netlander imaging ground penetrating radar operated on the Antarctic ice shelf, J. Geophys. Let., 2005 [11] S. Besse, Etude thorique de radars gologiques: Analyses de sols, dantennes et interprtation des signaux, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. de Limoges, Limoges, France, 2004 [12] G. Catania, H. Conway, A. Gades, C. Raymond, and H. Engelhardt, Bed reectivity beneath inactive ice streams in West Antarctica, Annales of Glaciology, vol. 36, pp. 287-291, 2003 [13] V. Ciarletti, A. Reineix, B. Martinat, J.J. Berthelier and R. Ney, Numerical simulation of the GPR operation of the GPR radar on NETLANDER, J. Geophys. Res., 108 (E4), 8028, doi: 10.1029/2002JE0011866, 2003 [14] S.M. Clifford, A model for hydrologic and climatic behaviour of water on Mars, J. Geophys. Res., vol. 98(E6), pp. 10973-11016 1993 [15] P.R. Christensen, Formation of recent martian gullies through melting of extensive water-rich snow deposits, Nature, vol. 422, pp. 45-48, 2003 [16] N. Engheta, C.H. Pappas and C. Elachi, Radiation patterns of interfacial dipole antennas, Radio Sci., vol. 17, pp. 1557-1566, 1982 [17] S. Fujita, T. Matsuoka, T. Ishida, K. Matsuoka, and S. Mae, A summary of the complex dielectric permittivity of ice in the megahertz range and its applications for radar sounding of polar ice sheets, in The Physics of Ice Core Record, T. Hondoh ed., Hokkaido, University Press, Sapporo, 2000 [18] F. Goos and Hnchen M., Ann. Phys., vol. 1, pp. 333-346, 1947 [19] R. Holland and L. Simpson, Finite-difference analysis EMP coupling to thin strut and wires, IEEE Tans. Electromagn. Compact., vol. 23(2), pp. 88-97, 1981 [20] A. Ivanov, A. Safaeinili, J. Plaut, S. Milkovich and G. Picardi, Observations of the layering structure in the Martian Polar Layered Deposits with the MARSIS instrument, 2006 AGU Fall meeting, San Fransisco, CA, USA, 2006 [21] R.W. Jacobel and B.C. Welch, time marker at 17.5kyr BP detected throughout West Antarctica, Annals of geology, vol. 41, pp. 47-51, 2005 [22] A. Le Gall, A. Reineix, V. Ciarletti, J. J Berthelier, R. Ney, F. Dolon, and C. Corbel, An estimation of the electrical characteristics of planetary shallow subsurfaces with TAPIR antennas, J. Geophys. Res., vol. 111(E06S06), doi:10.1029/2005JE002595, 2006

[23] H. Luce, M. Yamamoto, S. Fukao, D. Helal and M. Crochet, A frequency domain radar interferometric imaging (FII) technique based on high-resolution methods, Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, vol. 63, p. 221-234, 2001 [24] M.L. Lythe, D.G. Vaughan and the BEDMAP Consortium, BEDMAP: a new ice thickness and subglacial topographic model of Antarctica, J. Geophys. Res., Vol.106(B6), pp.11,335-11,351, 2001 [25] B. Martinat, Etude lectromagntique du GPR de NETLANDER destin au sondage du sous-sol Martien, Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. de Limoges, Limoges, France, 2001 [26] M.T. Mellon and B.M. Jakosky, The distribution and behavior of Martian ground ice during past and present epochs, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 100(E6), p. 11,781-11,79911, 1995 [27] M.T. Mellon and R. J. Phillips, Recent gullies on Mars and the source of liquid water, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 106, pp. 1-15., 2001 [28] M.L. Moran, S.A. Arcone and R.J. Greeneld GPR radiation pattern effects on 3-D Kirchhoff array imaging, Proc. SPIE: Eigth International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, Vol. 4084, pp. 208-212, 2000 [29] R.D. Palmer, T.Y. Yu, Range imaging using frequency diversity, Radio Science, vol. 34(6), pp. 1485-1496, 1999 [30] G. Picardi and the MARSIS team, Radar Soundings of the Subsurface of Mars, Science, vol. 310, pp. 1925 - 1928, 2005 [31] S.J. Radzevicius, J.J. Daniels and C.C. Chen, GPR H-plane patterns for a horizontal dipole on a half-space interface, GPR 2000 Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 2000 [32] R.K. Renard R.K., Total reection : a new evaluation of the GoosHnchen shift, Journal of Optical Society of America, vol. 54(10), pp. 459-512, 1964 [33] J.A. Roden and S. Gedney, Efcient implementation of uni-axial based PML media in three-dimensional non-orthogonal coordinates using FDTD technique, Microwave Opt. Technol. Lett., vol. 14(2), pp. 71-75, 1997 [34] J.J. Plaut and the MARSIS team, MARSIS Subsurface Sounding Observations of the Polar Deposits of Mars, 2006 AGU Fall meeting, San Fransisco, CA, USA, 2006 [35] M.J. Siegert, Lakes beneath the ice sheet: The occurrence, analysis and future exploration of Lake Vostok and other Antarctic subglacial lakes, Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences, vol. 33, pp. 215-245, 2005 [36] L. Smani, H. Luce, M. Crochet and S. Fukao, An improved highresolution processing method for a frequency domain interferometric imaging (FII) technique, Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol. 19, pp. 954-966, 2002 [37] S.W. Squyres, S.M. Clifford, R.O. Kuzmin, J.R. Zimbelman and F.M. Costard, Ice in the Martian regolith, in Mars, Kieffer, H. H., Jakosky, B. M., Snyder, C. W., and Matthews, M. S. (eds), University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, United States, pp. 523-554, 1992 [38] J.R. Wait, Theory of wave propagation along a thin wire parallel to an interface, Radio Sc, vol.7(6), pp. 675-679, 1972 [39] T.T. Wu and R. W. P. King, Cylindrical antenna with nonreecting resistive loading, IEEE Trans. Ant. Prop., 1965 [40] B.C. Welch and R. Jacobel, Analysis of deep-penetrating radar surveys of West Antarctica US-ITASE 2001, Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 30(8), doi:10.1029/2003GL017210, 2003 [41] K.S. Yee, Numerical solution of initial boundary value problems involving Maxwells equations in isotropic media, IEEE Trans. Electromagn. Compat., vol. 14(4), pp. 302-307, 1996

Alice Le Gall graduated in radio-communication and electronic engineering from the Ecole Suprieure dElectricit (SUPELEC). She received in 2004 the "Astrophysics and Astronomy" DEA degree from the University Paris Diderot (Paris 7), France. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in planetary subsurface exploration by ground penetrating radar from the Centre dEtude des Environnements Terrestre et Plantaires (CETP-IPSL).

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Valrie Ciarletti graduated in engineering degree from the Ecole Centrale de Paris in 1984 and received, in 1989, a Ph.D. degree from the University Paris 6, France. Since 1990, she has been an associate professor at Paris 13 university in the eld of telecommunication engineering. In 1993, her eld of interest turned to microwave remote sensing (Ground Penetrating Radars and Radars devoted to surface remote sensing) She was involved as the deputy PI in the NetLander GPR project and is PI of the WISDOM and EISS experiments proposed on the ExoMars mission.

Jean-Jacques Berthelier graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in 1961. He has been active in space physics since 1965 starting with studies of the polar ionosphere with rocket experiments. He was involved as a PI or CoPI in several space projects to measure the dynamics of the terrestrial, cometary or planetary plasmas and plasma waves. He has also been active in the eld of atmospheric electricity both on Earth and on future planetary missions. From his own experience in works measurements in space he became interested by ground penetrating radar and subsurface propagation being the PI of the ill-fated NetLander mission. He is presently CoPI of the WISDOM, EISS GPR experiments and ARES experiment on ExoMars.

Alain Reineix graduated from the University of Limoges (France). In 1986, he received a PhD in Electronic and Communications from the IRCOM laboratory of Limoges. He joined the CNRS, rst as a researcher, then as a Professor. Since 2000, he has been the head of the Electromagnetic Diffraction (DEM) Team of the XLim laboratory (formerly the IRCOM). He was the rst to introduce time domain methods (FDTD approach) in radar crosssection computation of complex structures around their resonant frequencies and in the modelling of photoconductors for switching energy or generating short pulses.