Soil characterization

Ground penetrating radars and passive radiometers are intended as anti-personnel mine detectors. Their performances depend upon parameters such as type and texture of soil, soil water content, soil density and operating frequency. In order to evaluate the performances of microwave technologies in land-mine detection, the electrical properties of soils have been extensively evaluated by the Microwaves Laboratory of the UCL from 2 to 18 GHz both theoretically and experimentally, using a new transmission method, as a function of soil type and water content. This has resulted in a new model for the microwave permittivity of soils, valid over a wide frequency range as shown in [3].