Terrain backscatter and oil sand exploration: Initial measurements results

An approach to measure the relationship between sensor configuration and terrain backscatter using microwave modeling and measurement techniques is presented. Based on apriori synthetic aperture radar scattering models the investigation measured the far field electromagnetic wave reflectivity of four different barefaced terrains at microwave frequencies in an anechoic chamber. A system which includes standard gain radar horn antenna, telescopic tripod mount, vector network analyzer and Styrofoam polystyrene box stand was configured and described in detail. The terrain samples (0.013 m³) included hard oil sand, beach sand, pebbles and gravel were investigated at L-band (1-2 GHz), C-band (5 - 7 GHz) and X-band (8.5 - 10 GHz) as well as incident geometry θ I from +30° to -30°. Planar, dihedral and trihedral reflectors were used to calibrate the results for both co-polarized (HH and VV) S-parameter measurements. The initial results provide a comparison of backscattering response for different terrain types particularly bitumen rich terrain such as oil sands in the far field region which is vital for deploying SAR system for petroleum exploration.