We present a 2D/3D topographic migration scheme for ground‐penetrating radar (GPR) data which is able to account for variable velocities by using the root mean square (rms) velocity approximation. We test our migration scheme using a synthetic 2D example and compare our migrated image to the results obtained using common GPR migration approaches. Furthermore, we apply it to 2D and 3D field data. These examples are recorded across common subsurface settings including surface topography and variations in the GPR subsurface velocity field caused by a shallow ground water table. In such field settings, our migration strategy provides well focused images of common‐offset GPR data without the need for a detailed interval velocity model. The synthetic and field examples demonstrate that our topographic migration scheme allows for accurate GPR imaging in the presence of variations in surface topography and subsurface velocity.

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