The role of the antenna radiation pattern in the performance of a microwave tomographic approach for GPR imaging

Microwave tomography has been exploited as a successful imaging technique for ground penetrating radar (GPR) surveys. However, an "ideal" antenna model (i.e., a filamentary current element) has usually been adopted so far to describe the involved scattering phenomena. In this study, such an assumption is removed, and the effects of a "realistic" antenna are taken into account by means of a customized numerical implementation. Specifically, we provide indications about the reconstruction capabilities expectable when the imaging is performed by using a "directional" wideband transceiver to gather GPR data. Moreover, we discuss to what extent the imaging performance is affected by a priori knowledge of the antenna model.