Clutter removal processing for improved mine detection using a frequency-stepped GPR

The assumption is that removal of elements of clutter from the frequency stepped ground penetration radar (GPR) signal data will improve the performance of any detection algorithms. Clutter comes in the form of internal system interference, cross-coupling signals between antennas, and soil artifacts (soil layers, rocks, non-homogeneous material, grass, etc.). The assumption is that the frequency stepped radar has a number of steps that cover a fixed bandwidth, and that the radar is phase coherent from step to step and over time. Processing consists of transforming the signal data into the spatial-frequency dimension and applying a set of filters, and then transforming into the range (bandwidth compression) dimension. The developed filters remove spectral components that are associated with signal returns from clutter elements. Examples using data from the US Army AN/PSS-14 mine detection system operating over inert mines are presented.