GPR systems for roads and bridges

Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) surveys over roads pose some unique challenges when compared to conventional site surveys. Data collection rates are several orders of magnitude greater than conventional GPR surveys. It is not unusual to collect up to 50 linear km of data in one day. A current single-receiver radar system, operating at 50 scans/second, can typically collect 1.5 Mbytes per minute of 8 bit data. However, 8 bit data have insufficient amplitude resolution or signal to noise levels for processing subtle amplitude features. Therefore, data are often digitized at 12- or 16-bit, thereby doubling the data rate to 3 Mbytes per minute. As road radar systems move towards multiple receivers, the problem increases accordingly.