The interaction of high-frequency electromagnetic wave- fields with
a typical ground-penetrating radar (GPR) antenna is complex and its
effects on the recorded data are not well understood. Significant
distortions of the amplitude radiation pattern and pulse shape with
respect to the electric dipole reference model must be expected to
arise from factors such as the finite length of the antenna and its
geometry. To address these issues, we present a versatile and efficient
simulation tool based on a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) approximation
of Maxwell''s equations, which allows us to model realistically the
antenna radiation character- istics for a wide variety of GPR systems.
Comparisons with laboratory measurements demonstrate that our algorithm
is accurate and capable of emulating real GPR systems with high fidelity.