Estimating the three-dimensional hydraulic structure of soils from ground-penetrating radar measurements

We investigate the application of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as a proxy to estimate the three-dimensional hydraulic structure of soils at the field scale. The soil at a test site was first explored with GPR in great detail. Soil profiles were excavated to obtain ground truth information about the dielectric structure observed from the radargrams. Time series of radargrams are measured along fixed profile lines which allow the separation of the static geologic structure from the dynamic structure caused by the temporally varying water content. The information gathered from the field data will be used as input parameters for a numerical simulation of water flow in the soil at the test site.