Surface Penetrating Radar

The SPRscan Surface Penetrating Radar is a revolutionary high performance system designed for detecting virtually any object concealed under the ground or behind walls. The equipment is completely weatherproof and can operate in virtually any type of soil condition. Depth of detection will vary on the object size and type of soil, but is typically up to 3 metres.

 

The SPRscan Surface Penetrating Radar System has evolved over a number of years following a specific request of the British Ministry of Defence for ground penetrating equipment. SPRscan is now in full production and has a wide variety of applications, including Police and Military search requirements, VIP protection, electronic countermeasures as well as commercial surveying. It has been instrumental in the Police detecting buried human bodies in UK and Belgium.

 

The SPRscan radar systems consists of 3 main parts, the controller (which in effect is a ruggedised PC personal computer), an antenna, and the TX/RX head electronics unit which transmits the information from the antenna to the controller. The standard system is supplied with a 500MHz antenna which has a typical penetration depth of 1.5 to 2.5 metres in good conditions - i.e. where sand and peat are good and salt water and clay are poor. The other antennas in the range are the 250MHz (typical penetration depth of 2.5 to 4.5 metres) and the 1GHz and 2GHz antennas. As a general guide, the lower frequency antennas (250MHz and 500MHz) are normally used for work below ground and the higher frequency for work above ground. As the penetration depth increases the resolution decreases. Hence the 1GHz and 2GHz are very useful for locating very small anomalies behind a surface such as a wall.

 

The radar works by sending out pulses of electromagnetic energy and detecting the electrical echo caused by dielectric differences within the surface being investigated. One of the main features of SPRscan is that during a search, as the antenna is moved across a surface the data is shown in real time, in colour, on the controller screen. This means that an anomaly beneath the surface can be seen immediately the radar passes over it, thus making instant on-site decisions possible. The data can also be downloaded onto a thermal printer which provides a strip print of the survey, or it can be stored on the hard disk for processing and/or inclusion in a survey report.

 

SPRscan is very flexible and can be used on a harness, mounted on a trolley or hand held if the smaller antennas are being used. It has a very wide range of applications which include the following: locating utilities, voids, bodies buried beneath the ground, caches of explosives/money/drugs etc. hidden beneath a surface, locating foundations in archaeological digs, pipes or cables etc.

The main features of ground penetrating radar are that it is non-destructive (no digging necessary), it is non-evasive (everyday work can carry on around a radar survey) and it can detect non-metallic objects e.g. plastics, ceramics etc.

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