Wave field decomposition of full-polarimetric data based on the two-way wave equation

For imaging and characterization of the shallow subsurface quite a few electromagnetic methods are used. The development of migration and characterization techniques for these methods is still in a preliminary state. Most use single component data and assume scalar wave behavior. In many situations, the direct waves and return signals from above surface objects are disturbing the true subsurface response signals. In addition, there are many signals coming from sources in the air at GPR bandwidths, masking true subsurface response signals. The signals that originate from above the measurement surface can be separated from signals that come from below the measurement surface by wave field splitting. Here such a procedure is developed based on the two-way wave equations. The reciprocity theorem for electromagnetic waves is used to split up the wave field into up- and down going wave fields. Preliminary numerical tests of the representations are promising and are ready to be tested on field data.