Ground penetrating capabilities of Airborne SAR System SETHI

Airborne radar platforms are useful to get image data bases of targeted areas selected for their interest regarding research topics. Airborne platform and embedded sensors are more flexible than space ones, and have bigger coverage than ground ones. It can be used as prototype of future airborne or space radars, and as algorithm and performance validation test bench. The ONERA SETHI platform has been used for several experiments that require soil penetration capabilities. This paper presents results of experiments during which buried objects were detected for different ground types and humidity conditions. First experiment has been realized over the Sahara desert, second one over Greenland Ice Sheet and last one in France over dry sand.