The Wigner distribution function applied to the detection of subsurface objects

The Wigner distribution function is used to display data obtained from a bistatic radar imaging setup. In particular, a scheme is developed to exploit the properties of the Wigner function for subsurface detection. Based on heuristic considerations it is argued that in the Wigner domain a separation of surface scattering and target signal is possible depending on the properties of the respective local plane wave spectra. An intuitive understanding of the phase space approach is developed from the case of a point target located underneath a planar dielectric interface. In addition, data based on rigorous computations of rough surface scattering are used to validate the method.