Microwave-based subsurface characterization through a combined finite element and variable exponent spaces technique

A microwave characterization technique to inspect subsurface scenarios is proposed and numerically assessed in this paper. The approach is based on a combination of finite element electromagnetic modeling and an inversion procedure in Lebesgue spaces with variable exponents. The former allows for description of the measurement system and subsurface scenario with high accuracy, while the latter exploits the adaptive definition of exponent function to achieve improved results in the regularized solution of the inverse scattering problem. The method has been assessed with numerical simulations regarding two-layered environments with both planar and non-planar air–soil interfaces. The results show the capabilities of the method of detecting buried objects in different operative conditions.