A new vector waveform inversion algorithm for simultaneous updating of conductivity and permittivity parameters from combination crosshole/borehole-to-surface GPR data

Abstract

We have developed a new full-waveform groundpenetrating radar (GPR) multicomponent inversion scheme for imaging the shallow subsurface using arbitrary recording configurations. It yields significantly higher resolution images than conventional tomographic techniques based on first-arrival times and pulse amplitudes. The inversion is formulated as a nonlinear least squares problem in which the misfit between observed and modeled data is minimized. The full-waveform modeling is implemented by means of a finite-difference time-domain solution of Maxwell's equations. We derive here an iterative gradient method in which the steepest descent direction, used to update iteratively the permittivity and conductivity distributions in an optimal way, is found by cross-correlating the forward vector wavefield and the backward-propagated vectorial residual wavefield. The formulation of the solution is given in a very general, albeit compact and elegant, fashion. Each iteration step of our inversion scheme requires several calculations of propagating wavefields. Novel features of the scheme compared to previous full-waveform GPR inversions are as follows: 1) The permittivity and conductivity distributions are updated simultaneously (rather than consecutively) at each iterative step using improved gradient and step length formulations; 2) the scheme is able to exploit the full vector wavefield; and 3) various data sets/survey types (e.g., crosshole and borehole-to-surface) can be individually or jointly inverted. Several synthetic examples involving both homogeneous and layered stochastic background models with embedded anomalous inclusions demonstrate the superiority of the new scheme over previous approaches.