Reconstruction of multilayered lossy dielectrics from plane wave impulse responses at two angles of incidence

Motivated by the radioglaciology inverse problem, the authors present new algorithms for reconstructing a lossy, stratified dielectric from its impulsive plane wave reflection responses at two different angles of incidence. Novel features of these algorithms include: 1) a digital signal processing formulation that does not require discretization of continuous equations; 2) use of the asymmetric Levinson algorithm for rapid solution of the forward and inverse problems; 3) a novel use of layer stripping ideas, featuring iteration between the forward and inverse problems, with each iteration recursively determining another layer of the medium; and 4) another recursive algorithm for determining the bottom lossy half-space from reflection data only. Numerical examples illustrate the new algorithms on the reconstruction of a synthetic but realistic layered ice shelf from both noiseless and noisy radar reflection data