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GPR radar is a high resolution electromagnetic imaging technique that works on the principle of scattering of electromagnetic waves to locate and image subsurface/buried objects by recording RF reflections from dielectric discontinuities. It is used primarily to investigate subsurface profiles of the earth and works best under low loss dielectric conditions. It can thus be utilized to gain understanding of subsurface material composition by extracting electrical properties (dielectric constant, loss tangent) of materials. It can also be used to image sub surface structures of a given terrain that finds applications in environmental, engineering, archaeological and other shallow investigations.

Space Applications Centre had taken up the development of ultra-wideband UHF GPR for technology demonstration. It can be extensively used in both the terrestrial (commercial) as well as interplanetary missions of ISRO (operation on a Lander or Rover to provide 3D view of the land profile and subsurface structures of planetary surfaces up to a reasonable depth) with necessary optimizations. Applications require subtle changes in the hardware (frequency selection) as well as the processing software. Thus the system can be tuned to the application on hand.

GPR system was designed for interplanetary missions that are constrained by low power and weight budget. The system was developed and delivered for multiple Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) for snow-ice monitoring. The results closely match those from the commercial GPR.

Use of standard components enabled the realisation of GPR at one tenth of the cost of imported ones. This technology is available for transfer to Indian industry.