LOW-FREQUENCY SOUNDER RADAR SYSTEM AS A NEW TOOL FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION AND MONITORING: POTENTIALITIES AND PRELIMINARY SURVEYS

This paper deals with a multifunction/multifrequency airborne radar system to be used as a support tool for archaeological prospections. The system, designed by the research consortium CO.RI.S.T.A., works at relatively low frequencies in a band ranging from VHF/UHF to P and L ones. It is capable to operate in two different modalities: i) nadir-looking sounder in the VHF band (163 MHz); ii) side-looking imager (SAR) in the P band with two channels at 450 MHz and 860 MHz. The radar has been installed on a civil helicopter and its operation as sounder system has been validated in flight. Preliminary surveys have been carried out over the Paestum archaeological site, South Italy. The acquired data have been processed by a microwave tomographic reconstruction approach developed at IREA-CNR. Reconstruction results highlight that the system is capable to provide information about the geology of the site and of its shallower layers in a relatively short time.