Estimation of Unsaturated Flow Parameters by Inverse Modeling and GPR Tomography

The main goal of this work was to evaluate the possibility of estimating the flow parameters and geological structure of the unsaturated zone, also called vadose zone, using both geophysical and hydrological data and methods. The vadose zone at Moreppen field site located near Oslo’s Gardermoen airport was used as the case study. Moreppen field site has been the subject of numerous studies related to sedimentological, hydrological, geophysical and geochemical processes in the saturated and vadose zone. However, in the field of hydrology none of the previous studies at Moreppen used spatially continuous geophysical data to estimate the flow parameters at the field site. In this study, cross well GPR travel time tomography for the first time was used at Moreppen to map the spatial and temporal distribution of the electromagnetic (EM) wave velocity at the field site. The EM wave velocities were converted to the soil water content using a petrophysical relationship. Then using an inverse flow modeling conditioned on volumetric soil water content, we estimated hydrological parameters in the field site. Since snowmelt is the main groundwater recharge at Gardermoen, we focused our study to the water flow through the vadose zone during the snowmelt

Electromagnetic Waves

This volume is based on the contributions of several authors in electromagnetic waves propagations. Several issues are considered. The contents of most of the chapters are highlighting non classic presentation of wave propagation and interaction with matters. This volume bridges the gap between physics and engineering in these issues. Each chapter keeps the author notation that the reader should be aware of as he reads from chapter to the other

Fast and accurate 3-D ray tracing using bilinear traveltime interpolation and the wave front group marching

National Natural Science Foundation of China [41074077, 40774065]P>We propose a new ray tracing technique in a 3-D heterogeneous isotropic media based on bilinear traveltime interpolation and the wave front group marching. In this technique, the media is discretized into a series of rectangular cells. There are two steps to be carried out: one is a forward step where wave front expansion is evolved from sources to whole computational domain and the subsequent one is a backward step where ray paths are calculated for any source-receiver configuration as desired. In the forward step, we derive a closed-form expression to calculate traveltime at an arbitrary point in a cell using a bilinear interpolation of the known traveltimes on the cell's surface. Then the group marching method (GMM), a fast wave front advancing method, is applied to expand the wave front from the source to all girds. In the backward step, ray paths starting from receivers are traced by finding the intersection points of potential ray propagation vectors with the surfaces of relevant cells. In this step, the same TI scheme is used to compute the candidate intersection points on all surfaces of each relevant cell. In this process, the point with the minimum traveltime is selected as a ray point from which the similar step is continued until sources. A number of numerical experiments demonstrate that our 3-D ray tracing technique is able to achieve very accurate computation of traveltimes and ray paths and meanwhile take much less computer time in comparison with the existing popular ones like the finite-difference-based GMM method, which is combined with the maximum gradient ray tracing, and the shortest path method

1-D broadside-radiating leaky-wave antenna based on a numerically synthesized impedance surface

A newly-developed deterministic numerical technique for the automated design of metasurface antennas is applied here for the first time to the design of a 1-D printed Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA) for broadside radiation. The surface impedance synthesis process does not require any a priori knowledge on the impedance pattern, and starts from a mask constraint on the desired far-field and practical bounds on the unit cell impedance values. The designed reactance surface for broadside radiation exhibits a non conventional patterning; this highlights the merit of using an automated design process for a design well known to be challenging for analytical methods. The antenna is physically implemented with an array of metal strips with varying gap widths and simulation results show very good agreement with the predicted performance

Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

Individual and joint inversion of surface wave tomography for near-surface applications

L'abstract è presente nell'allegato / the abstract is in the attachmen

Through-The-Wall Detection Using Ultra Wide Band Frequency Modulated Interrupted Continuous Wave Signals

Through-The-Wall-Detection (TTWD) techniques can improve the situational awareness of police and soldiers, and support first responders in search and rescue operations. A variety of systems for TTWD based on different waveforms have been developed and presented in the literature, e.g. radar systems based on pulses, noise or pseudo-noise waveforms, and frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) or stepped frequency continuous wave (SFCW) waveforms. Ultra wide band signals are normally used as they provide suitable resolution to discriminate different targets. A common problem for active radar systems for TTWD is the strong backscattered signal from the air-wall interface. This undesired signal can overshadow the reflections from actual targets, especially those with low radar cross section like human beings, and limit the dynamic range at the receiver, which could be saturated and blocked. Although several techniques have been developed to address this problem, frequency modulated interrupted continuous wave (FMICW) waveforms represent an interesting further approach to wall removal, which can be used as an alternative technique or combined with the existing ones. FMICW waveforms have been used in the past for ionospheric and ocean sensing radar systems, but their application to the wall removal problem in TTWD scenarios is novel. The validation of the effectiveness of the proposed FMICW waveforms as wall removal technique is therefore the primary objective of this thesis, focusing on comparing simulated and experimental results using normal FMCW waveforms and using the proposed FMICW waveforms. Initially, numerical simulations of realistic scenarios for TTWD have been run and FMICW waveforms have been successfully tested for different materials and internal structure of the wall separating the radar system and the targets. Then a radar system capable of generating FMICW waveforms has been designed and built to perform a measurement campaign in environments of the School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, Durham University. These tests aimed at the localization of stationary targets and at the detection of people behind walls. FMICW waveforms prove to be effective in removing/mitigating the undesired return caused by antenna cross-talk and wall reflections, thus enhancing the detection of targets

Development of electrical resistivity imaging methods for geological and archaeological prospecting

Not availabl

Applications of Space-Age Technology in Anthropology

The papers in this volume were presented at a conference entitled, 'Applications of Space-Age Technology in Anthropology,' held November 28, 1990, at NASA's Science and Technology Laboratory. One reason for this conference was to facilitate information exchange among a diverse group of anthropologists. Much of the research in anthropology that has made use of satellite image processing, geographical information systems, and global positioning systems has been known to only a small group of practitioners. A second reason for this conference was to promote scientific dialogue between anthropologists and professionals outside of anthropology. It is certain that both the development and proper application of new technologies will only result from greater cooperation between technicians and 'end-users.' Anthropologists can provide many useful applications to justify the costs of new technological development