Environmental Surveys
Typically environmental surveys require a low frequency radar. How low a frequency depends up on a) the depth to which you require to probe and b) the water content of the ground, if any. Included in this category of investigation are Nature Conservation schemes, detection of Badger Tunnels, Glaciology, Exploration of Peat Mosses, Mineral Extraction and Mining.
What Frequency?
For depths of up to 30m in relatively dry conditions or c. 11m in full waterlogging, the 50MHz Groundvue 2 is ideal. Groundvue 2 has been extensively used for examining Peat Mosses for conservation purposes, for the detection of wetland archaeology, to evaluate remaining peat stocks and also to verify peat extraction has stayed within agreed limits.
Going deeper, we start to use the snake antennas. These are unscreened – they would be too unwieldy if screened and are usually used in environments where potential interference with other equipment is not critical. (See also our notes on Licensing on the Technical page).
Groundvue 6 probes depths of up to 180m. Currently it is used for detection of sand dune stratigraphy (used in petroleum exploration); coal mining, monitoring of the permafrost, mapping underground water resources and detection of certain mineral/precious stone deposits. It is the deepest penetrating of our radars.
Groundvue 6C is a spread spectrum radar adaptation of Groundvue 6 with a maximum 90m range. It can be used for many of the same applications as Groundvue 6. Being a slightly higher frequency, it will not penetrate as deeply but its target definition is slightly higher. So, for example, it is more suited than Groundvue 6 to detecting the old shafts in coal mines as opposed to the coal seams.
Like Groundvue 6, Groundvue 7 is an impulse radar system. Its maximum range is c. 80m although this depends upon the ground under investigation. This system was developed in response to a mining exploration client’s request for a higher resolution system than the Groundvue 6 and 6C. Currently it is used for the detection of unmapped old mine tunnels (for health & safety reasons), estimates of remaining bauxite deposits, as well as those of iron ore and precious metals. UtEl have granted a worldwide exploitation licence to Groundprobe/IGI [Link].
All of the low frequency radars use real time A to D converters which gives a higher than usual Signal to Noise ratio and therefore an extended range of depth penetration relative to other systems.