Cover surfaces as a new technique for 3D GPR image enhancement. Archaeological applications

Abstract

Currently, there are several ways to present 3D Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) results: time or depth slices, a mixture of radargram-slice images, GPR reflectivity maps and GPR isosurface images. In this study, we review these image-based rendering techniques and present a new alternative technique to construct 3D images that improve the visualisation of GPR results. We call this new representation technique “3D GPR cover surfaces”. To evaluate the quality of these 3D cover surfaces compared to other standard imaging techniques, we use a GPR dataset from the Iberian site of La Escuera (Alicante, Spain). These data were acquired with a 400-MHz antenna on profiles with 0.5 m spacing. We show images of the resulting 3D cover surfaces and demonstrate that they are similar to a stratigraphic archeological excavation.