Papers by Francesco Soldovieri
Coatings
The characterization of the layered structure is of paramount importance for the study of maiolic... more The characterization of the layered structure is of paramount importance for the study of maiolica wares (tin-glazed pottery). This paper presents the potentialities of Terahertz Time-Domain Imaging (THz-TDI) as a tool to perform non-invasive stratigraphic analysis of the maiolica objects under test. Samples with different types of stratigraphy, as testified by preliminary SEM-EDS analysis, were investigated by THz-TDI in laboratory conditions. The collected THz data were processed by means of noise filtering procedures and a time-of-flight-based imaging approach and the achieved results corroborate the ability to identify glaze layers, whose electromagnetic properties, i.e., the refraction index and the dielectric permittivity value, were estimated by taking into account both THz-TDI and SEM-EDS data. However, layers applied over the white glaze (namely, a transparent overglaze and a luster decoration) were not detected, probably since their thickness is below the range resolution ...
Nowadays, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems working in contactless way deserve huge attentio... more Nowadays, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) systems working in contactless way deserve huge attention because, if mounted onboard of moving platforms like terrestrial and aerial vehicles, they allow the collection of a large amount of data, while keeping low complexity and time of the measurement step [1,2]. At the same time, multiple input multiple output (MIMO) GPR systems are worth being exploited because, being capable of gathering multiview and multistatic data, they allow an improvement of the reconstruction capabilities [3, 4]. However, the effective use of a contactless MIMO GPR requires the availability of properly designed data processing strategies able to manage the information acquired by this kind of systems and to provide an accurate reconstruction of the scenario under test.This contribute proposes a microwave tomographic approach, which faces the GPR imaging as a linear inverse scattering problem and it is suitable to process contactless multi-view and multi-static dat...
Nature Communications
Knowledge of the physical and thermal properties of the South Polar Layer Deposits (SPLD) is key ... more Knowledge of the physical and thermal properties of the South Polar Layer Deposits (SPLD) is key to constrain the source of bright basal reflections at Ultimi Scopuli detected by the MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding) radar sounder. Here we present a detailed analysis of attenuation, based on data acquired by MARSIS at 3, 4, and 5 MHz. We show that attenuation is frequency dependent, and that its behavior is consistent throughout the entire region. This suggests that the SPLD are compositionally homogeneous at Ultimi Scopuli, and our results are consistent with dust contents of 5 to 12%. Using these values as input, and plausible estimates of surface temperature and heat flux, we inferred basal temperatures around 200 K: these are consistent with perchlorate brines within liquid vein networks as the source of the reflections. Furthermore, extrapolation of the attenuation to higher frequencies explains why SHARAD (Shallow Radar) has thus far not detec...
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Apr 1, 2016
ArcheomaticA N°4 dicembre 2015 Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell'Ambiente (IREA) ... more ArcheomaticA N°4 dicembre 2015 Istituto per il Rilevamento Elettromagnetico dell'Ambiente (IREA) sviluppa ormai da più di un decennio metodologie per elaborare, interpretare e rendere disponibili dati provenienti da sensori operanti da satellite, aereo e in situ, per la sorveglianza e la gestione del territorio, la sicurezza e la valutazione dei rischi, compreso quello elettromagnetico. Inoltre, vengono sviluppate metodologie e tecnologie per la realizzazione di infrastrutture di dati geo-spaziali e per applicazioni biomedicali dei campi elettromagnetici. L'istituto, costituito nel 2001, rappresenta un'eccellenza della ricerca scientifica e tecnologica del nostro Paese. Con sede istituzionale a Napoli, sede secondaria a Milano e la stazione sperimentale "Eugenio Zilioli" a Sirmione del Garda (Bs), l'IREA contribuisce a dare risposte a problematiche di notevole importanza in relazione alle sfide sociali in diversi settori che vanno dal monitoraggio del territorio e dell'ambiente, alla sicurezza, alla protezione delle infrastrutture strategiche. Fra le attività svolte assume particolare importanza lo sviluppo di tecnologie di osservazione della terra e di close sensing per la gestione sostenibile e la protezione dei Beni Culturali. LABORATORI le teCnoloGie di oSServazione della terra e di diaGnoStiCa elettroMaGnetiCa al Servizio dei Beni Culturali l'eSperienza dell'irea-Cnr L'IREA-CNR sviluppa metodologie e tecnologie per l'acquisizione, l'elaborazione, la fusione e l'interpretazione di immagini e dati ottenuti utilizzando sensori per il monitoraggio dell'ambiente e del territorio nonché per la valutazione del rischio elettromagnetico.
Numerical examples concerning different investigated scenarios and failures will be shown at the ... more Numerical examples concerning different investigated scenarios and failures will be shown at the Conference.
Sensing the Past, 2017
This chapter first highlights the necessity of sustainable management and protection of cultural ... more This chapter first highlights the necessity of sustainable management and protection of cultural heritage (CH). This necessity is stated by pointing out the social and economic value of our cultural heritage, presenting the very challenging set of risk factors, and by briefly summarizing the recommendations of high-level policy makers. A possible answer to these necessities is the design and the implementation of a systematic approach, based on the integration of different concepts ranging from the sensing, to the information and communications technology (ICT) tools, to the materials design and implementation. In this framework, the present book describes the novel and state-of-the-art technologies in the field of diagnosis and monitoring and in ICT for the improved fruition of cultural heritages.
Sensing the Past, 2017
This chapter presents the interesting case study of the monitoring of the Viaduct Basento in Pote... more This chapter presents the interesting case study of the monitoring of the Viaduct Basento in Potenza (southern Italy). Two features make this case study fascinating. The first aspect is that Viaduct Basento is probably the most important and visionary architectural work of the famous structural engineer Sergio Musmeci. The second aspect concerns the application, almost unique in the scientific literature, of an integrated diagnosis approach combining a wide set of electromagnetic sensing technologies with advanced civil engineering analysis methodologies and tools.
Remote sensing, nowadays, is one of the main technology used in the field of cultural heritage, t... more Remote sensing, nowadays, is one of the main technology used in the field of cultural heritage, thanks to its non-invasiveness in a such a delicate subject of study[1]. Thanks to the improvement and creation of new sensors, it is used in many study cases that varies from conservation analysis in monuments[2], frescoes[3], rose-windows[4], wall paintings [5], to archaeological site detection and risk protection[6]. Together with the development of new sensors and new application, many data processing tools and methods have been developed for pattern extraction. Between these, there are some new studies that uses Geovisualization to integrate analysis performed over different types of remote sensed data and to extract useful pattern for cultural heritage applications [3],[7]. Geovisualization is a discipline that exploits the great computer performances available today with the field of geographic information analysis together with the human ability to find visual patterns. In this co...
One of the main risk factor occurring at Gubbio, a historical town in Italy, is the presence of a... more One of the main risk factor occurring at Gubbio, a historical town in Italy, is the presence of a significant soil accumulation around the medieval Walls. Indeed, it has been estimated that currently there are more than 5 or 6 m of ground accumulation pressing on the Walls and that the soil amount increases progressively with a rate of around 50 cm / century. Such a phenomenon is due to torrential rains and represents a hydrological issue associated with the landslide, whose monitoring requires the study of the subsoil features in order to foresee possible evolution in time and to mitigate the related effects properly. Based on this requirement, a measurement campaign involving both ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electric resistivity tomography (ERT) was performed in July 2017, in the frame of the Horizon 2020 project HERACLES. Both ERT and GPR provide images, which are, in some way, a snapshot of certain soil features at the time when the surveys were performed. In particular, ...
In recent years, the miniaturization of flight control systems and payloads has contributed to a ... more In recent years, the miniaturization of flight control systems and payloads has contributed to a fast and widespread diffusion of micro-UAV (Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle). While micro-UAV can be a powerful tool in several civil applications such as environmental monitoring and surveillance, unleashing their full potential for societal benefits requires augmenting their sensing capability beyond the realm of active/passive optical sensors [1]. In this frame, radar systems are drawing attention since they allow performing missions in all-weather and day/night conditions and, thanks to the microwave ability to penetrate opaque media, they enable the detection and localization not only of surface objects but also of sub-surface/hidden targets. However, micro-UAV-borne radar imaging represents still a new frontier, since it is much more than a matter of technology miniaturization or payload installation, which can take advantage of the newly developed ultralight systems. Indeed, micro-UAV-b...
2021 IEEE 8th International Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace (MetroAeroSpace), 2021
Aerospace industry needs accurate coating thickness measurement as well as adhesion testing for p... more Aerospace industry needs accurate coating thickness measurement as well as adhesion testing for preventing the corrosion of wear of metal substrates. Recently, a constant attention is focused towards the potentialities offered by non-invasive sensing techniques and their technological advancements. This communication deals with time of flight THz imaging, enhanced by a noise filtering procedure based on the Singular Value Decomposition of the data matrix. In this work, THz imaging is exploited to analyse painted steel samples in order to detect paint coating layers and provide images of them and of the interface between the coating layer and the steel substrate.
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, 2017
Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 2017
The main aim of this work is to show the potentialities of an X-band radar system about the detec... more The main aim of this work is to show the potentialities of an X-band radar system about the detection of the coastal upwelling phenomenon. This is made possible by means of the estimation of the sea surface current, which moves from the coastal areas toward the open sea for wind-induced upwelling events. The study presents the results of the X-band radar data processing for a system installed at Capo Granitola (southwestern Sicily). In particular, the radar data acquired in three different periods—namely, 5–6 November 2013, 8–9 February 2015, and 6 March 2015—indicated upwelling events. The occurrence of these events was confirmed by independent information derived from in situ wind data provided by a meteorological station and the analysis of the satellite-derived sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a well assessed electromagnetic tool for subsurface imaging and... more Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a well assessed electromagnetic tool for subsurface imaging and is widely adopted in several Earth Sciences, such as geophysics, geology and archeology, in order to gather information on buried structures in non-invasive way and without performing excavations. In this communication, we report on the GPR measurement campaign carried out at Grotte dell’Angelo, Pertosa, Salerno province, Southern Italy, one of the most famous sites of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano geopark. This site, beyond to be a striking nature trail, is of archeological interest since a prehistoric pile dwelling settlement was discovered in the cavern at the end of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, large part of this ruins was destroyed and the surviving ones are not visible being covered by an embankment and the river crossing the cave. In this frame, GPR survey have been recently carried out with a two- fold aim: to support the outcomes of previous archaeological investigat...
2014 United States National Committee of URSI National Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI NRSM), 2014
Summary form only given. We propose a novel forward model for Radio Frequency (RF) Tomography. RF... more Summary form only given. We propose a novel forward model for Radio Frequency (RF) Tomography. RF Tomography is formulated around a scattered electric field integral equation, which represents its forward model. Such equation is inherently non-linear, because the unknown scattered electric field can be calculated only from the knowledge of the total field, which includes the unknown scattered field as well. To overcome this problem, the Born approximation is usually employed. The approximation allows to linearize the forward model, by assuming that the scattering field is very small compared to the total field: hence, the total field can be approximated with the incident field, and a linear model is obtained. This is equivalent to considering the Neumann series expansion of the forward model and dropping all but the first term of it. This approach shows important limitations, such as the assumption that the difference between the dielectric permittivity of the target and the one of the medium where the target is located be small. Even in this scenario, the removal of non-linear effects has detrimental consequences on the quality of the reconstructed image. It can be shown that the Born approximation operates as a spatial low-pass filter on the forward model integral operator. This translates into an overall loss of resolution and sharpness in the target reconstruction. We propose to overcome these limitations by introducing a forward model based on a quadratic operator. The approach is equivalent to keeping an additional term in the Neumann series expansion of the non-linear integral operator. The advantage of this method is to create a much better model of the forward problem, which translates in turn into a superior image reconstruction. The cost of this approach is mainly computational, since it requires the calculation of both a linear operator (equivalent to the one obtained with the Born approximation) and a quadratic one.
The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry, 2013
Groundwater resources, which are exposed to overexploitation and pollution at regional and local ... more Groundwater resources, which are exposed to overexploitation and pollution at regional and local levels, may take benefit from fast, nonintrusive, and inexpensive monitoring methods based on electromagnetic techniques. In fact, the available technologies can help to improve management and protection of the aquifers. This chapter deals with the role of electromagnetic sensing techniques in water monitoring with a specific focus to pollution surveys in groundwater bodies. Being sensitive to the presence of water in the subsoil and its electrical conductivity, which in turn depends on the ionic content, the electromagnetic sensing techniques are useful tools for groundwater identification and soil quality assessment. In fact, these sensing techniques offer advantages such as quickness, nonintrusivity, and the possibility of investigating large areas at reasonable costs. However, the appropriate use of these techniques implies an adequate knowledge of their working principles as well as of their on field application procedures, which mainly depend on the survey aim and the geological and logistic conditions of the site. This chapter also discusses the uncertainty in the interpretation of results, which is due to the fact that the electromagnetic sensing techniques are based on indirect inspections. Several strategies can be exploited to reduce ambiguity of results, such as the integration of different electromagnetic techniques and the comparison between field data and those provided by laboratory experiments. These issues are herein addressed through practical examples concerning two study cases, one referred to a site located in Serbia-Herzegovina and one located in Italy. In particular, we illustrate the physical concepts, the operative aspects, the data processing, and the integration of results concerning the following measurement techniques: electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), ground-penetrating radar (GPR), time-domain-induced polarization (time domain IP), and self-potential method (SP). The two study cases concerns an industrial site and a large waste dump structure. These sites represent specific examples of soil monitoring and have been selected in order to evaluate the performance of the proposed techniques. For each site, we provide a description of the survey results accounting for geological evidences, logistic constraints, and physical limitation of the used techniques. Finally, we highlight the advantages offered by a cooperative use of different techniques and suggest strategies to overcome intrinsic limitations of each one of the considered survey methods.
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Papers by Francesco Soldovieri