Patent ID: 7262602

Claim:
A system for determining the physical characteristics and geological composition of subterranean formations comprising: at least one movable transmit antenna in the far-field of a prospecting point capable of being held stationary at an incidence station during transmission, wherein said incidence station has an angle of incidence which results in other than normal incidence, and capable of transmitting electromagnetic waves of a transmit explicit polarization state with said polarization state depending upon the transmit antenna's orientation and at varying specific frequencies wherein the transmit antenna is capable of rotation in a plane orthogonal to a transmit propagation line; at least one movable receive antenna, capable of receiving electromagnetic waves reflected from said subterranean formations of a receive explicit polarization state with said polarization state depending upon the receive antenna's orientation, and at said varying specific frequencies and capable of being held stationary at said incidence station during reception, wherein the receive antenna is capable of rotation in a plane orthogonal to a receive propagation line; means for transmitting said electromagnetic waves of said transmit explicit polarization state at said varying specific frequencies from said transmit antenna; means for receiving reflected electromagnetic waves of said receive explicit polarization state at said specific frequencies from said receive antenna as data; and, means for manipulating said data such that the differences in intensity and polarization state between the transmitted and the received electromagnetic waves of varying specific frequencies at said explicit polarization states are used to map subterranean topology and identify geologic composition of the layers to determine the physical characteristics and geological composition of subterranean formations.