Ground-Penetrating Radar

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What Does Ground-Penetrating Radar Mean?

Ground-penetrating radar is a technology that uses pulses of electromagnetic radiation to penetrate the surface of the ground, and go below to reveal any anomalies in soil or other materials. Ground-penetrating radar uses microwave band frequencies, generally from 10 MHz to 1 GHz.

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Techopedia Explains Ground-Penetrating Radar

Ground-penetrating radar machines are often designed to be portable, with connections to a traditional laptop or other interface technologies, and memory systems built in. They typically run off of batteries. These machines conduct pulses over an area that are collectively called a “scan.” The antenna sends a signal into the ground and returns signals based on what is underneath the surface. Ground-penetrating radar is used for things like geological profiling, and to determine the placement of objects of different types in underground areas.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.