Ground penetrating radar (GPR) is an important means in shallow geophysical science and technology. Its importance lies in its universality
and effectiveness. GPR is playing an important role in engineering testing,
environmental protection, archaeological relics, disaster relief, anti-terrorism
security inspection, resource exploration, hydrology and water conservancy
and other scientific and technological fields that cannot be replaced by other
means. There have been many articles on the development history, basic system
and principle, signal processing and imaging of GPR. This paper reviews the
application of ground penetrating radar (GPR) as an important means of
shallow geophysical observation in several basic geoscience and engineering
fields. These include the internal structure and formation mechanism of tall
sand dunes in the desert, the detection and prediction of the status quo and
evolution of permafrost, the detection of cavities and weak zones in civil
infrastructure (roads, Bridges, DAMS and dikes) or in the foundation, and
the detection and rescue of life in earthquake disaster sites. Variations of GPR
technology (e.g., borehole radar, lunar radar) will also be reviewed at length.
Finally, I will put forward my personal opinions on the existing problems
and development direction of GPR technology. It should be emphasized
that although the topic of this paper is the scientific application of GPR, the
successful application of superficial geophysical achievements in various fields
cannot depend on any single means or method. All successful examples have
proved that it is necessary to emphasize one method as the main and other
methods as the auxiliary, and only by effective cooperation of multiple methods
and multiple methods can the non-uniqueness of detection results be reduced
to the greatest extent and accuracy and precision be improved.