LAUSR

Abstract In traditional ground penetrating radar (GPR) field data processing, e.g. horizontal stacking and migration, the wave propagating phase velocity is commonly used, while field magnitude decay is neglected. We derived the scalar wave equation of an electric vector field or magnetic vector field component and proved that the solution of this equation is the product of a decaying exponential function factor and a solution factor, which satisfies the pure wave equation. The waveform decomposition allows the evaluation of the absorption coefficient using the amplitudes of GPR waves. A meaningful method for absorption coefficient estimation in the time domain was introduced and tests with synthesized data demonstrated that this method is simple and effective. This method can simplify the process of absorption estimation and has a practical application value. Therefore, it is not only important for GPR data processing but may also yield important information on ground electrical properties.