Adaptive antenna for ground penetrating radar

In this paper a concept in designing an adaptive antenna for ground penetrating radar is presented along with its preliminary simulation results. The antenna considered is an array of wire dipoles arranged to form a wire bow-tie antenna. The input impedance of bow-tie antennas is known to be dependent mostly on their flare angle. For antennas situated on the ground, maximal radiation into the ground can be obtained if their input impedance is optimized with respect to the ground impedance. Bow-tie antennas can therefore be optimized to radiate maximum power into a certain type of ground by adjusting their flare angle. In a first approach, without matching the antenna to feeding line, it is found numerically that there exists a certain angle at which this antenna radiates maximal power into the ground for all types of ground. In this case, adaptation to the ground by varying flare angle is still not fully realized. In our future research, another approach will be used, in which the antenna is matched to the feeding line within the whole spectrum of input pulse in order to obtain a more effective adaptation to the ground.