A method for determination of the location, shape, and material properties of a 3D object from measurements of the scattered field, when the object is successively illuminated by a number of incident fields is presented. This work extends the method previously developed for reconstructions of 2D permittivity and conductivity from electromagnetic measurements to the more complicated full-vector 3D electromagnetic inversion. Furthermore, a frequency hopping strategy to improve the resolution of the unknown objects when the frequency is raised, is underlined. Results of numerical experiments are presented to illustrate both strengths and weaknesses of the method.

A two-dimensional algorithm, which combines the well-known Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging and the recently developed effective inversion method, is presented and applied to a three-dimensional configuration. During the first stage a two-dimensional image of a realistic three-dimensional buried object is obtained. In the second stage the average permittivity of the object is estimated using a two-dimensional effective inversion scheme where the geometrical information retrieved from the SAR image is employed. The algorithm is applicable in real time.