A major issue in the application of waveform inversion methods to
crosshole ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data is the accurate estimation
of the source wavelet. Here, we explore the viability and robustness
of incorporating this step into a recently published time-domain
inversion procedure through an iterative deconvolution approach.
Our results indicate that, at least in non-dispersive electrical
environments, such an approach provides remarkably accurate and robust
estimates of the source wavelet even in the presence of strong heterogeneity
of both the dielectric permittivity and electrical conductivity.
Our results also indicate that the proposed source wavelet estimation
approach is relatively insensitive to ambient noise and to the phase
characteristics of the starting wavelet. Finally, there appears to
be little to no trade-off between the wavelet estimation and the
tomographic imaging procedures.