Subsurface microwave remote sensing and scattering modelling on hyper-saline soil: Example of Lop Nur

Subsurface microwave remote sensing is a direction of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) research. With the penetration capability, SAR is capable of detecting the subsurface targets and materials, especially in arid environment. Lop Nur Lake is located at the east of Tarim Basin in Xinjiang province of China, which is described as ¿dry core¿ of the world, and it can provide conditions for SAR penetration. This paper presents preliminary analysis about Lop Nur, and gives out an abstract subsurface structure about it. Then, the major scattering processes are concluded and a two-layer scattering model is developed. Based on parameters of soil samples, some rules about Lop Nur evolution will be figured out. With Genetic Algorithm (GA), an inversion procedure is constructed. All the attempts are viewed as the basis of future comprehensive interpretation about Lop Nur phenomenon.