A review of geometric issues in GPR prospecting of cylindrical structures in Cultural Heritage applications

Abstract

Cultural Heritage diagnostics often involves the application of geophysical methods like ground penetrating radar along non-planar surfaces. Sometimes, as in the investigation of columns with a small radius, the basic assumption underlying the application of conventional processing algorithms (half-space geometry) is strongly violated. Although frequently overlooked, this implies that appropriate algorithms should be developed to take into account the additional data complexity arising from the unusual acquisition setting and exceptional care should be used in interpreting the radargrams. Through numerical and real data examples an in-depth analysis of reflection/diffraction features from buried and above-surface objects is performed in this paper.

A multidisciplinary analysis of the Crypt of the Holy Spirit in Monopoli (southern Italy)

“…This calculation allowed us to emphasize the high amplitude values related to the backscattered energy. Actually, the employed processing is suitable for plane surfaces rather than cylindrical ones (Nuzzo and Quarta 2010) and for this reason, we have employed a high-frequency antenna, to enlarge the curvature ray of the probed surface with respect to the central wavelength. Even though all the columns were probed, here we show the results relative to only two of them for sake of brevity.…”

“…collapse occurred in the ancient Roman town of Pompei (Italy). After this general preamble and of course not independently from it, non-invasive architectural heritage monitoring is also widely dealt with in the scientific literature, e.g., with regard to ancient Roman and renaissance monuments (Barone et al 2010), mediaeval churches (Ranalli et al 2004Utsi 2010) and even frescoes, balconies, marble statues and wooden artefacts (Pieraccini et al 2006;Cosentino et al 2009;Colla 2010). Of course, the list could be much longer.Here, we present the case history of the Crypt of the Holy Spirit, in Monopoli (Apulia region, southern Italy).…”

Magnetic gradient and ground penetrating radar prospecting of buried earthen archaeological remains at the Qocho City site in Turpan, China

“…The use of geophysical methods to detect buried ruins in the archaeological investigation has been widely reported. Geophysical technologies are applied for guiding excavation (Capizzi et al 2007;Forte and Pipan 2008;Porsani, Jangelme, and Kipnis 2010;Sarris et al 2013;Zananiri, Hademenos, and Piteros 2010) and for analysing larger layout of a site by extending the mapping of ruins that have already been excavated (Bossuet et al 2012;Gaffney et al 2000;Seren et al 2004;Utsi 2010;Verdonck et al 2012) and capturing the integrity degree of standing monuments (Masini, Persico, and Rizzo 2010;Nuzzo and Quarta 2012;Papadopoulos et al 2012). Compared with traditional excavation, which would be time consuming and would possibly cause damage to the existing topography and ruins within the study area, geophysical technologies provide an efficient and non-destructive tool.…”