Abstract

gprMax (https://www.gprmax.com/) is an open-source software package for computational electrodynamics. Designed with a general electromagnetic (EM) solver engine, it has a set of core features developed for modelling Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). gprMax uses the classical Yee cell and Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) method to solve Maxwell’s equations in 3D with 2nd order accurate derivatives in space and time. It is the de facto tool for GPR forward modelling and is expanding with electromagnetic applications in other research domains, e.g. bio-medical, planetary science.   gprMax has a unique combination of advanced modelling capability (e.g. heterogeneous, dispersive soil models, fractal-based topography) and performance (OpenMP/MPI/CUDA) not available in other open-source and commercial FDTD codes. These capabilties make gprMax a capable forward modelling tool that can form part of an inversion framework for electromagnetic problems/applications.