In recent years, research institutions at home and abroad attach great importance to the development and application of full-polarimetric ground penetrating radar (FP-GPR) technology. Tohoku University in Japan, The Ohio State University in the United States, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and University of Potsdam in Germany have all carried out the detection of underground targets using FP-GPR, especially the detection of mines and unexploded ordnance.

College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology of Jilin University set up the indoor test and outdoor acquisition system of the FP-GPR, carried out studies on polarization rotation mechanism, calibration, data processing, imaging and target classification recognition. The polarimetric decomposition technology of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is applied to the data analysis of FP-GPR, which effectively enhances the target classification and recognition ability of the FP-GPR. The FP-GPR, developed by Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is mounted on the surface rover of Tianwen 1, the first Mars exploration mission, to detect water ice and dry ice in the Utopian Plain of Mars and to map the fine structure beneath it. 

Fig. 1 The data acquisition system and processing results of the FP-GPR set up by College of Geo-exploration Science and Technology of Jilin University.

Fig. 2 The FP-GPR which are designed by Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences aboard the surface rover of China's Tianwen 1 Mars exploration mission.