Sparse reconstruction from GPR data with applications to rebar detection

The problem of detecting and localizing 2-D thin scatterers (i.e., elongated scatterers whose cross sections are small in terms of the probing wavelength) from scattered field measurements is considered. To this end, a linear model that neglects mutual scattering and is based on a distributional representation of the unknown is established. An improved imaging technique based on a minimization algorithm, which takes advantage of the inherent sparseness of the considered ground-penetrating radar scenario, is presented and compared to a classical migration algorithm. The comparison is achieved for both synthetically generated and experimental data collected in realistic conditions under a multimonostatic/multifrequency configuration. © 2006 IEEE.