Borehole radar monitoring of infiltration processes in a vadose zone

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is an effectiveness tool for imaging spatial distribution of hydrogeologic parameters. An artificial groundwater recharge test has been conducted in Nagaoka City in Japan, and time-lapse crosshole GPR data were collected to monitor infiltration processes in a vadose zone. Since radiowave velocities in a vadose zone are largely controlled by variations in water content, the increase in traveltimes is interpreted as an increase in saturation in the test zone. We use a finite-difference time-domain method in two-dimensional cylindrical coordinates to simulate field results. Numerical modeling successfully reproduces the major feature of velocity changes in the filtration process.