Presented by: Sensors and Software

This course will cover the fundamentals of GPR, including topics such as factors affecting target detection, frequency and resolution and basic applications of GPR. Attendees will gain some interpretation skills along the way. Attendees will spend some time hands-on with the equipment.

Approximate outline:

0:00 – 0:50: PowerPoint
0:50 – 2:30: Hands-on surveying outdoors
2:30 – 3:00: Case studies, Questions and answers

A certificate of completion will be given to course attendees.

Registration fee (by May 3, 2020): $125 (USD)
Registration fee (after May 3, 2020): $150 (USD)

Presented by: Sensors and Software

Using the data collected in Course A, as well as other data sets, users will use the EKKO_Project PC software to interpret data, and present results using various outputs and reports.

Attendees will need to bring their own laptops to the class with the software pre-loaded. Attendees will be contacted prior to the course with instructions regarding acquisition of the software.

A certificate of completion will be given to course attendees.

Registration fee (by May 3, 2020): $125 (USD)
Registration fee (after May 3, 2020): $150 (USD)

Presented by: Sensors and Software

Registrants can attend both Course A and Course B.

A certificate of completion will be given to course attendees.

Registration fee (by May 3, 2020): $200 (USD)
Registration fee (after May 3, 2020): $250 (USD)

The goal of this workshop is to disseminate and discuss technological advances in the application of GPR imaging to hydrogeologic and hydrologic processes. This will be communicated in three sections:

• Review of Ground Penetrating Radar and Hydrologic Principles
• Motivation for Applied GPR Approaches to Hydrologic Problems
• Lectures and Hands on Demonstrations of State-of-the-Art Analyses

A brief opening lecture will review the fundamental principles for GPR and hydrology to ensure that all attendees of the workshop are comfortable with key topics that will be revisited throughout the course. This will include basics of electromagnetic waves at GPR frequencies, analysis of GPR data for velocities, unsaturated water flow and soil models, and petrophysical relationships.

The next section of the workshop will focus on framing the purpose of GPR-based hydrogeophysical research and provide motivation for future studies. We will also take a brief look at recent studies with GPR-based studies measuring volumetric water content.

The main section of the workshop will consist of presentations from several scientists on the utilization of GPR for hydrologic monitoring. Each speaker will give a 30-minute lecture covering the main ideas of their work, followed by a miniature lab where attendees will get the chance to apply the method introduced by the lecturer.

In the closing hour of the workshop, we will open the floor for discussion on identifying key limitations in applying GPR methods to hydrologic problems. This time may also be used as a buffer to adjust for any deviations in schedule during the day.

Learning objectives

Attendees should be capable of describing the general approach to and basics of the theory for applying GPR to solve hydrologic problems.

Attendees should be able to describe conditions of unsaturated porous media and describe important ideas, models, and parameters that govern the flow of fluids through these media.

Attendees should be able to generally describe the similarities, differences, and general methods involved in the multiple approaches described during the workshop.

Attendees should be able to design and implement surveys and analyze GPR data in a hydrologic framework for solving hydrologic problems.

Instructors

John Bradford (jbradford@mines.edu) – John Bradford has 26 years of GPR research experience and has worked on topics ranging from utility detection to imaging lake thermoclines. A substantial part of his work has focused on advanced velocity analysis and imaging techniques for assessing subsurface water distributions. He is currently Dean and Vice Provost at Colorado School of Mines.

Stephen Moysey (moyseys18@ecu.edu) - Stephen Moysey is a Professor of Geological Sciences at East Carolina University and Director of ECU's Water Resources Center. His major area of research is in hydrogeophysics, particularly the development of novel image acquisition and interpretation methods for understanding subsurface flow and transport processes. Past work with his students has included pattern recognition in GPR data for the development of stochastic groundwater models, the definition of hydrologic trajectories in GPR data to calibrate soil infiltration models, and the development of methods for multi-offset GPR imaging such as dispersion analysis and time-lapse reflection tomography. Dr. Moysey also works in the area of geoscience education, particularly the use of technology tools like mobile devices, game-based learning, and virtual reality for engaging students.

Majken Looms (mcl@ign.ku.dk) – Majken Looms has worked with GPR since 2003. Her work mainly focuses on using crosshole GPR to investigate flow and transport processes in the unsaturated zone, but also in complex geological formations, such as clayey till and carbonate rocks. Emphasis has been on extracting the information content of the geophysical data by optimizing or completely avoiding the geophysical inversion.

Albane Santenoy (albane.saintenoy@u-psud.fr) – Albane Saintenoy is an Associate Professor at the University Paris-Saclay in the Geosciences of Paris Sud (GEOPS) laboratory. Her current research interests are soil hydraulic parameter determination from geophysical measurements, and GPR with different fields of applications such as archaeology and Arctic permafrost studies.

Adam Mangel (adam.mangel@pnnl.gov) – Adam Mangel is an Earth Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The focus of his research revolves around the application of geophysical methods to environmental, engineering, and energy problems. Contributions to the GPR community include the advancement of multi-offset imaging techniques including automated data collection, development of dispersion analysis and time-lapse reflection tomography, full-waveform inversion of surface-based GPR data, and the use of GPR on tree trunks to image changes in trunk moisture over time and space.

George Tsoflias (tsoflias@ku.edu) – George Tsoflias received B.S. (1989) and M.S. (1991) degrees in geophysics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. (1999) from the University of Texas at Austin. He was employed as a geophysicist for Mobil Oil from 1991 to 1995, for the U.S. Department of the Interior from 1999 to 2003, and since 2003 he has been a geophysics faculty at the University of Kansas, Department of Geology where he currently holds the position of Professor. Tsoflias' research has focused on the development of ground penetrating radar methods for imaging channeled flow along discrete fractures and for monitoring transport of mass in fractured rock.

What to bring

In general, attendees should bring materials for a classroom setting. Attendees are allowed to bring personal laptops, as this would likely allow attendees to be the most proficient during the workshop, however, lab computers should be available. If attendees bring a personal laptop, Matlab and Python will need to be installed and functioning prior to June 14, 2020. We will not spend time during the workshop to solve technical problems on personal machines. There will be a guest wifi network for connectivity.

Prerequisites

• Attendees should be comfortable in Matlab and Python computing languages.
• Attendees should be familiar with standard analyses for GPR data, e.g. identifying arrivals, estimating a velocity, etc.
• Attendees should be able to define common GPR terms, e.g. amplitude, phase, frequency, period, wavelength, etc.
• Attendees should have a basic understanding of fluid flow in porous media and recognize terms like volumetric water content, saturation, etc.

Maximum number of participants: 20

Registration fee (by May 3, 2020): $200 (USD)
Registration fee (after May 3, 2020): $250 (USD)

The goal of this workshop is usage of the open-source GPR processing and visualization software GPRPy.

GPRPy (https://nsgeophysics.github.io/GPRPy/) is a freely-available open-source ground penetrating radar processing and visualization software with a graphical user interface. It runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux and is currently compatible with GSSI, Sensors and Software, and MALA data files, but new systems can be added. In this hands-on workshop you will learn how to use GPRPy for basic profile data processing, visualization of profiles in 2D and 3D, interpolation of data cubes, processing of CMP (common midpoint) and WARR (wide angle reflection and refraction) data sets, and generation and modification of scripts to automatize processing and visualization. GPRPy is provided under the permissive MIT license, allowing anyone to modify, sell, or used it for commercial applications without restrictions as long as the original source is explicitly mentioned.

Instructors

Alain Plattner (amplattner@ua.edu) – Alain Plattner got his PhD in Computational Geophysics at ETH Zürich focusing on algorithm development for near-surface electrical resistivity tomography in 2011. After a 3-year as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University and 4 years as Assistant Professor at Fresno State, he has been an Assistant Professor of geophysics in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Alabama.

What to bring

Attendees who bring their own laptop will be able to install the software on their laptop. To speed up the installation process, attendees should have Anaconda (or Miniconda) Python 3.5 or higher installed. Anaconda: https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/ Miniconda: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html. The difference between the two is that Anaconda comes with more packages, but may require more memory on the computer.

Maximum number of participants: 30

Registration fee (by May 3, 2020): $125 (USD)
Registration fee (after May 3, 2020): $150 (USD)