Newsletter - March 2012
GPR-SLICE users,
I would like to welcome the following organizations to the GPR-SLICE
community












Adojam, Kensington, Maryland
Stratascan Ltd., Worcestershire, UK, (www.stratascan.co.uk)
Zetica, UK (www.zetica.com)
Orcun Oguz, Turkey
Dept of Classical Archaeology, Cornell University, New York
Korea Institute of Geological Environments, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
Geomatics Division, Wiser Co., Mursfreeboro, Tennessee (www.wiserco.com)
Northwest Geophysics, Carnation, Washington (www.northwestgeophysics.com)
Apex Survey, Ireland (www.apexsurveys.ie)
EUROCES, Turkey
Minoscan, Norway
University of Pisa, Italy
In addition, Tespit Muhendislik Ltd in Turkey expanded the number of GPR-SLICE
licenses at their company. GPRSIM licenses were delivered to the University of Pisa,
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
and Laurel Industrial our Chinese distributor delivered licenses to Shandong University
and Guizhou University.
Software Updates
Among the improvements and requests added to GPR-SLICE V7.0
Software over the last 3 months are:











Open GL Volume XYZ-2D menu
X, Y and also Z offsets added to GPS Track menu
Info file rotation for X, Y, XY or Ang surveys
Import of names in the Create Info File menu for single direction X or
Y surveys automatically reads the start/end values to assign line
locations
Mala Geoscience total station formats included with Mala to Nav button engaged
in the Edit Info File menu for conversion of *.cor files to *.rd3.gps GPR-SLICE
navigation files
Isosurface option to fill in the edges on OpenGL Volume displays
Radargram filenames displayed in Grid Plot menu
Slider bar controls added to OpenGL Volume menu
Radargram export to ASCII format in the Filter menu
Customized and improved north arrow displays
GSSI SIR 30 integration (see page 357 of the updated manual)
The updated GPR-SLICE v7.0 manual is available for download on the
www.gpr-survey.com/practice ftp site. It is password protected so please
email us to get this. The GPRSIM manual was also updated and is available
on the website on the Subscribers Only page.
Some of the more important additions to GPR-SLICE are further
discussed:
Open GL Volume XYZ-2D
The new OpenGL Volume XYZ-2D menu was recently released. This
menu examines the 3D volume in a completely 2D format where the X, Y
and Z plane cuts through the volume are simultaneously shown as anomaly
locations are clicked on the Z plane. The example shown on the following
page is for a 3D volume of the entire radargram pulse generated from a
multi-channel datasets. In this Open GL volume display, the X and Y plane
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
cuts look like radargrams in those directions. For most single channel
volumes generated, users will normally be making square amplitude
volumes which are interpolated spatially and in time/depth. The volume
cuts along X and Y may look similar to highly smoothed Hilbert transform
radargrams. A focus button is available in this menu. Clicking this button
one time then capturing a rectangular portion of the Z plane with the mouse
held down, will re-focus the volume to the desired size (as seen in the
screen shot above).
The regular focus checkbox is also available where
explicit xstart/xend, ystart/yend, and Zstart(ns)/Zend(ns) can be set in the
left hand corner of the menu.
In the OpenGL Volume XYZ-2D menu there are two styles to show the y
plane cut: Style A shows the Y plane cut with a forward look with ranges on
the bottom; Style B shows the Y plane cut with the depth on the bottom
axis. Using the Z+/- buttons the plotting length of the depth axis can be
controlled on the Z planes. There are also slider bars to independently
control the X, Y and Z plane scan positions.
The OpenGL Volume XYZ-2D menu will track anomalies in the X and Y
plane cuts at the location where the mouse pointer was last clicked on the Z
plane. Clicking the bounce button, the corresponding pointers will oscillate
up and down along the X and Y plane cuts at the same locations on the Z
plane.
OpenGL Volume XYZ-2D menu is also available with the object drawing
controls. The OpenGL Volume XYZ-2D+Draw menu can be launched on the
3D Volume pulldown on the main menu.
X,Y, Z GPS offsets
Offset of the GPS receiver wrt to the profiling antenna for single channel
data now has an option to read columns 1,2,3 of the information file and
apply the line-by-line offset using the Info Offset button in the GPS track
menu. Normally, the XY Offset button in the GPS track menu can be used to
apply a global X, Y and Z offset to the GPS tracks and readjust and rewrite
the tracks. However, in the case when offsets may change line-by-line and
the GPS receiver is moved or adjusted during the survey, the Info Offset
option will now easily encompass these changes. The individual offsets are
stored in the information file. Clicking the Info Offset button will read the
offset stored in the information file and apply these to each line individually.
Multi-channel users have always seamlessly used the information file offsets
when navigation is controlled and adjusted with the Array to Nav button.
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
Now, single channel users have the same control options in the GPS Track
Menu.
Info File Rotate
An option to rotate the lines in an information file when the survey is an
X, Y, XY or Ang survey is available. A new Rotate button in the Edit Info File
menu can be engaged to rotate the lines by a set number of degrees. A new
information file appended with "-rotate" will be written. Using the Shift
buttons the radargram lines can alse be geo-referenced very easily, before
processing even begins.
The final time slices using the geo-referenced
information file will be native geo-referenced grids.
(One can also work
with local information files as before and use the options to rotate/translate
in the Grid menu to geo-reference images).
The rotation process will
redefine the new info-rotate information files as an "ang" survey.
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
Information File Auto Creation via Import
The information file can be automatically created by importing all the
filenames in the \raw\ folder rather than using the Create Info File button.
The user must first set the radargram extension, and the xstart/xend
ystart/yend values. Clicking the Import \raw\ button will automatically
assign line locations based on the total number of radargrams found in the
\raw\ folder and the type of survey engaged, e.g. X, Y.
Note: This convenient option cannot be used with XY surveys or Ang surveys
and can only be used for X or Y surveys. XY surveys always require making
infox and infoy and then appending these directly in the Create Info File
menu.
Note:
Windows may alphabetize the import names according to the
operating system, so having sequential names in the raw data is usually
required to use this quick button for generating the information file.
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
There have been many software fixes made over the last 3 months to
address the new options as well as some old options in the software which
are all listed on the Subscribers Only page. Please update the software in
order to be running the latest version of GPR-SLICE. Also, if you have not
converted your USB key to the Marx SAF technology by using the
information on the Subscribers Only page please do it this week as the
conversion files are going to be removed from this location shortly.
Recent Events
In the last year we have successfully trained and given support to users
with Skype. Skype users can share their screen or I can share my screen to
assist in training. I highly recommend Skype for those that have not yet
downloaded this free service as it can be much more useful for training and
support for GPR-SLICE in the future.
My contact name on Skype is
deangoodman1.
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
A 2 day workshop was taught at the University of Vigo in Spain on
February 13-14 by Dr. Alex Novo. Attendees from Spain, Italy and as far as
away as Poland attended.
Alex has started a Facebook group for GPRSLICE
users
should
you
have
an
interest
to
join
gpr.slice@groups.facebook.com.
Upcoming Events
An Advanced GPR-SLICE 2 Day Workshop in Woodland Hills is scheduled
for April 25-26. The workshop is limited to 16. If you have an interest in
this workshop please reserve your spot soon. As a brief review of GPRSLICE operations are planned, beginning users are also encouraged to
attend. There is more information on the Upcoming Events page of the
website about the workshop including recommended hotels nearby. A
minimum of 7 attendees will need to sign on for the workshop to be
confirmed.
March 6-8, 2012
GPR-SLICE/GPRSIM Software Exhibit, Common
Ground Alliance, Excavation Safety Conference, Rio Hotel, Las Vegas.
http://www.cgaconference.com/
April 25-26 2012 GPR-SLICE Advanced Workshop, Woodland Hills
California. For more information please see the Upcoming Events page of
the website http://www.gpr-survey.com/gprslice/upcomingevents.html
May 7-11 2012
National Park Service’s 2012 workshop, Current
Archaeological Prospection Advances for Non-Destructive Investigations in
the 21st Century, at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Ogallala,
Nebraska. A portion of the workshop is dedicated to GPR lectures and
imaging.
For further information, please contact Steven L. DeVore,
Archeologist, National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Federal
Building,
Room
474,
100
Centennial
Mall
North,
Lincoln,
steve_de_vore@nps.gov.
May 21-25, 2012 Archaeological Geophysics Workshop, Ultraset Spain,
GPR fieldwork and GPR-SLICE training and processing session. For more
information on attending this event please contact Dr. Alex Novo
(alexnovo@uvigo.es)
http://www.mac.cat/eng/Branches/Ullastret/Actividades/Cursos/
1st.-MAC-International-Workshop-of-Archaeological-GeophysicsMAC-IWAG
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com
June
4-8,
2012,
GPR-SLICE/GPRSIM
Software Exhibit, 14th
International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, Shanghai, China
(www.gpr2012.org )
September 21-29, 2012 - International Technical Workshop "Remote
Sensing
Techniques
in
Archaeological
Research"
(RESTAR)
http://www.archaeolandscapes.eu/index.php/news-aevents/news/166-technical-workshop-qremote-sensing-techniquesin-archaeological-research-restarq.html. GPR surveys and GPR-SLICE
processing sessions to be featured in the workshop along with other
geophysical methods and lectures. For more information on this workshop in
2012, please contact Dr. Apostolos Sarris Laboratory of Geophysical Satellite Remote Sensing & Archaeo-environment, (asaris@ims.forth.gr)
GPR-SLICE and GPRSIM Software are going to be exhibited at the
Excavation in Safety conference in Las Vegas and the SAGEEP convention in
Tucson next month. If anyone is planning to attend please let us know and
please come visit our software booths.

best wishes,
____________________________________
Dean Goodman
Geophysicist, Phd
Geophysical Archaeometry Laboratory
20014 Gypsy Ln
Woodland Hills CA 91364
dean@gpr-survey.com
gal_usa_goodman@msn.com
www.GPR-SURVEY.com
*This newsletters is available in *.doc form on the Subscribers Only page of the
website
GPR-SLICE V7.0 www.GPR-SURVEY.com