Effects of metallic system components on marine electromagnetic loop data

Electromagnetic loop systems rely on the use of non-conductive materials near the sensor to minimize bias effects superimposed on measured data. For marine sensors, rigidity, compactness and ease of platform handling are essential. Thus, commonly a compromise between rigid, cost-effective and non-conductive materials (e.g. stainless steel versus fibreglass composites) needs to be found. For systems dedicated to controlled-source electromagnetic measurements, a spatial separation between critical system components and sensors may be feasible, whereas compact multi-sensor platforms, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous unmanned vehicles require the use of electrically conductive components near the sensor. While data analysis and geological interpretations benefit vastly from each added instrument and multidisciplinary approaches, this introduces a systematic and platform-immanent bias in the measured electromagnetic data. In this scope, we present two comparable case studies targeting loop-source electromagnetic applications in both time and frequency domains: the time-domain system trades the compact design for a clear separation of 15 m between an upper fibreglass frame, holding most critical titanium system components, and a lower frame with its coil and receivers. In case of the frequency-domain profiler, the compact and rigid design is achieved by a circular fibreglass platform, carrying the transmitting and receiving coils, as well as several titanium housings and instruments. In this study, we analyse and quantify the quasi-static influence of conductive objects on time- and frequency-domain coil systems by applying an analytically and experimentally verified 3D finite element model. Moreover, we present calibration and optimization procedures to minimize bias inherent in the measured data. The numerical experiments do not only show the significance of the bias on the inversion results, but also the efficiency of a system calibration against the analytically calculated response of a known environment. The remaining bias after calibration is a time/frequency-dependent function of seafloor conductivity, which doubles the commonly estimated noise floor from 1% to 2%, decreasing the sensitivity and resolution of the devices. By optimizing size and position of critical conductive system components (e.g. titanium housings) and/or modifying the transmitter/receiver geometry, we significantly reduce the effect of this residual bias on the inversion results as demonstrated by 3D modelling. These procedures motivate the opportunity to design dedicated, compact, low-bias platforms and provide a solution for autonomous and remotely steered designs by minimizing their effect on the sensitivity of the controlled-source electromagnetic sensor.     

Noise characteristics of an electromagnetic sea-ice thickness sounder on a fixed wing aircraft

In this paper, the noise sources of an airborne electromagnetic frequency domain instrument used to measure sea-ice thickness are studied. The antennas are mounted on the wings of an aircraft. The paper presents real data examples showing that strong noise limited the accuracy of the thickness measurement to ± 0.5 m in the best case. Even drift cor­rection and frequency ?ltering did not reduce the noise to a level necessary for sea ice thickness measurements with an accuracy of 0.1 m. We show results of 3D ?nite element modeling of the coupling between transmitter and receiver coils and the aircraft, which indicate that wing ?exure is the primary cause of the strong noise. Wing de?ection angles below 5° relative to the fuselage are large enough to cause changes higher than the wanted signal from the seawater under the ice. Wing ?exure noise can be divided into an inductive and geometric contribution, both of the same order. Most of the wing ?exure signal appears on the inphase component only, hence the quadrature component should be taken for sea ice thickness retrievals when wing ?exure is present even when the inphase produces a larger ocean sig­nal. Results also show that pitch and roll movements of the aircraft and electromagnetic coupling between seawater and aircraft can contribute signi?cantly to the total noise. For ?ight heights of 30 m over the ocean these effects can change the sig­nal by about 10% or more. For highly quantitative measurements like sea-ice thickness all these effects must be taken into account. We conclude that a ?xed wing electromagnetic instrument for the purpose of measure­ments in a centimeter scale must include instrumentation to measure the relative position of the antenna coils with an accuracy of 1/10 mm. Furthermore the antenna separation distance should be as large as possible in order to increase the measured ratio of secondary to primary magnetic field strength.     

Artificial neural networks for removal of couplings in airborne transient electromagnetic data

Modern airborne transient electromagnetic surveys typically produce datasets of thousands of line kilometres, requiring careful data processing in order to extract as much and as reliable information as possible. When surveys are flown in populated areas, data processing becomes particularly time consuming since the acquired data are contaminated by couplings to man‐made conductors (power lines, fences, pipes, etc.). Coupled soundings must be removed from the dataset prior to inversion, and this is a process that is difficult to automate. The signature of couplings can be both subtle and difficult to describe in mathematical terms, rendering removal of couplings mostly an expensive manual task for an experienced geophysicist. Here, we try to automate the process of removing couplings by means of an artificial neural network. We train an artificial neural network to recognize coupled soundings in manually processed reference data, and we use this network to identify couplings in other data. The approach provides a significant reduction in the time required for data processing since one can directly apply the network to the raw data. We describe the neural network put to use and present the inputs and normalizations required for maximizing its effectiveness. We further demonstrate and assess the training state and performance of the network before finally comparing inversions based on unprocessed data, manually processed data, and artificial neural network automatically processed data. The results show that a well‐trained network can produce high‐quality processing of airborne transient electromagnetic data, which is either ready for inversion or in need of minimal manual processing. We conclude that the use of artificial neural network scan significantly reduce the processing time and its costs by as much as 50%.     

Turning off low and high currents in a transmitter loop used in the transient electromagnetic method

In near-surface transient electromagnetic studies, it is desirable to measure the transient response starting from the earliest possible time. This requires the current in the transmitter loop to be switched off quickly, which necessitates working with a low transmitter current. As for deep-target transient electromagnetic studies, the transmitter current is as high as possible. The transmitter current's turn-off waveform and total duration affect the transient voltage response, especially at early times, which is to be accounted for when interpreting transient electromagnetic data. This article discusses the difference in switching off low and high current in a horizontal loop used as the source of the primary magnetic field in the transient electromagnetic method. Low and high currents are turned off in fundamentally different ways. When the current to be switched off is low, the loop can be represented as a symmetric combination of two transmission lines grounded at the middle of the loop perimeter. Such a representation of a loop allows calculating the current turn-off waveform at any point of the loop. The waveform and total duration of switching off a low current does not depend on its magnitude, but is determined by the period of natural oscillations of the current in the loop and the resistance of a shunting resistor. Switching off a low current in a loop can be represented as the sum of stepped current waves travelling along the loop wire. As a consequence, the current at different points of the loop perimeter is turned off at different times. In contrast to a low current, a high current is switched off linearly in time and synchronously at all points of the loop perimeter. The wave phenomena appear only at the very beginning of the current shutdown for a time interval that is much less than the total current turn-off duration. Presentation of the loop using a simple lumped-circuit model predicts the waveform and duration of the high current turn-off that coincide with the measured ones. There are two reasons why the article may be of interest to those engaged in the theory and/or practice of electromagnetic geophysical methods. First, it contributes to a general understanding of how the current in the transmitter loop is turned off. Second, the article shows how the parameters of a transmitter loop determine the current turn-off duration and thus the minimum depth of the transient electromagnetic sounding method.     

Spectral decomposition and de‐noising via time‐frequency and space‐wavenumber reassignment

The reassignment method remaps the energy of each point in a time‐frequency spectrum to a new coordinate that is closer to the actual time‐frequency location. Two applications of the reassignment method are developed in this paper. We first describe time‐frequency reassignment as a tool for spectral decomposition. The reassignment method helps to generate more clear frequency slices of layers and therefore, it facilitates the interpretation of thin layers. The second application is to seismic data de‐noising. Through thresholding in the reassigned domain rather than in the Gabor domain, random noise is more easily attenuated since seismic events are more compactly represented with a relatively larger energy than the noise. A reconstruction process that permits the recovery of seismic data from a reassigned time‐frequency spectrum is developed. Two approaches of the reassignment method are used in this paper, one of which is referred to as the trace by trace time reassignment that is mainly used for seismic spectral decomposition and another that is the spatial reassignment that is mainly used for seismic de‐noising. Synthetic examples and two field data examples are used to test the proposed method. For comparison, the Gabor transform method, inversion‐based method and common deconvolution method are also used in the examples.     

The electromagnetic response of a horizontal electric dipole buried in a multi‐layered earth

The electromagnetic response of a horizontal electric dipole transmitter in the presence of a conductive, layered earth is important in a number of geophysical applications, ranging from controlled‐source audio‐frequency magnetotellurics to borehole geophysics to marine electromagnetics. The problem has been thoroughly studied for more than a century, starting from a dipole resting on the surface of a half‐space and subsequently advancing all the way to a transmitter buried within a stack of anisotropic layers. The solution is still relevant today. For example, it is useful for one‐dimensional modelling and interpretation, as well as to provide background fields for two‐ and three‐dimensional modelling methods such as integral equation or primary–secondary field formulations. This tutorial borrows elements from the many texts and papers on the topic and combines them into what we believe is a helpful guide to performing layered earth electromagnetic field calculations. It is not intended to replace any of the existing work on the subject. However, we have found that this combination of elements is particularly effective in teaching electromagnetic theory and providing a basis for algorithmic development. Readers will be able to calculate electric and magnetic fields at any point in or above the earth, produced by a transmitter at any location. As an illustrative example, we calculate the fields of a dipole buried in a multi‐layered anisotropic earth to demonstrate how the theory that developed in this tutorial can be implemented in practice; we then use the example to examine the diffusion of volume charge density within anisotropic media—a rarely visualised process. The algorithm is internally validated by comparing the response of many thin layers with alternating high and low conductivity values to the theoretically equivalent (yet algorithmically simpler) anisotropic solution, as well as externally validated against an independent algorithm.     

Robust f‐x projection filtering for simultaneous random and erratic seismic noise attenuation

Linear prediction filters are an effective tool for reducing random noise from seismic records. Unfortunately, the ability of prediction filters to enhance seismic records deteriorates when the data are contaminated by erratic noise. Erratic noise in this article designates non‐Gaussian noise that consists of large isolated events with known or unknown distribution. We propose a robust f‐x projection filtering scheme for simultaneous erratic noise and Gaussian random noise attenuation. Instead of adopting the ?₂‐norm, as commonly used in the conventional design of f‐x filters, we utilize the hybrid ‐norm to penalize the energy of the additive noise. The estimation of the prediction error filter and the additive noise sequence are performed in an alternating fashion. First, the additive noise sequence is fixed, and the prediction error filter is estimated via the least‐squares solution of a system of linear equations. Then, the prediction error filter is fixed, and the additive noise sequence is estimated through a cost function containing a hybrid ‐norm that prevents erratic noise to influence the final solution. In other words, we proposed and designed a robust M‐estimate of a special autoregressive moving‐average model in the f‐x domain. Synthetic and field data examples are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm.     

Evolution of deghosting process for single‐sensor streamer data from 2D to 3D

In marine acquisition, reflections of sound energy from the water–air interface result in ghosts in the seismic data, both in the source side and the receiver side. Ghosts limit the bandwidth of the useful signal and blur the final image. The process to separate the ghost and primary signals, called the deghosting process, can fill the ghost notch, broaden the frequency band, and help achieve high‐resolution images. Low‐signal‐to‐noise ratio near the notch frequencies and 3D effects are two challenges that the deghosting process has to face. In this paper, starting from an introduction to the deghosting process, we present and compare two strategies to solve the latter. The first is an adaptive mechanism that adjusts the deghosting operator to compensate for 3D effects or errors in source/receiver depth measurement. This method does not include explicitly the crossline slowness component and is not affected by the sparse sampling in the same direction. The second method is an inversion‐type approach that does include the crossline slowness component in the algorithm and handles the 3D effects explicitly. Both synthetic and field data examples in wide azimuth acquisition settings are shown to compare the two strategies. Both methods provide satisfactory results.     

基于姿态变化的航空频率域电磁法仪器偏置实时校正方法研究

磁偶极子的航空频率域电磁法仪器在飞行测量的过程中由于仪器偏置的存在,且仪器偏置会随着外部气压、温度等环境因素以及收发线圈晃动的影响而呈现非线性变化,使得观测数据出现误差,因此需要对仪器偏置进行校正.而传统的在测线飞行前后将仪器抬至高空的“零场值”标定方法具有成本高、受测区环境影响大以及采用线性插值获取测线飞行过程中仪器偏置的精度低等缺点.本文根据仪器偏置与仪器姿态角变化无关的特性,通过测得仪器的姿态角信息,在满足重叠偶极子模型的条件下,实现对仪器偏置的高精度实时校正.模型仿真结果表明,在30 m常规飞行高度下,该方法实时测得的仪器偏置精度接近于110 m高空测得的精度;校正后仪器偏置的绝对误差与理论二次场的比值即相对误差小于5%,满足反演大地电导率的精度要求.该方法不仅减少了飞行的工作量,降低了飞行成本和飞行难度,而且可更加精确地获得测线飞行过程中仪器偏置的非线性变化值,提高航测数据的观测精度.     

Attenuation of marine seismic interference noise employing a customized U-Net

Marine seismic interference noise occurs when energy from nearby marine seismic source vessels is recorded during a seismic survey. Such noise tends to be well preserved over large distances and causes coherent artefacts in the recorded data. Over the years, the industry has developed various denoising techniques for seismic interference removal, but although well performing, they are still time-consuming in use. Machine-learning-based processing represents an alternative approach, which may significantly improve the computational efficiency. In the case of conventional images, autoencoders are frequently employed for denoising purposes. However, due to the special characteristics of seismic data as well as the noise, autoencoders failed in the case of marine seismic interference noise. We, therefore, propose the use of a customized U-Net design with element-wise summation as part of the skip-connection blocks to handle the vanishing gradient problem and to ensure information fusion between high- and low-level features. To secure a realistic study, only seismic field data were employed, including 25,000 training examples. The customized U-Net was found to perform well, leaving only minor residuals, except for the case when seismic interference noise comes from the side. We further demonstrate that such noise can be treated by slightly increasing the depth of our network. Although our customized U-Net does not outperform a standard commercial algorithm in quality, it can (after proper training) read and process one single shot gather in approximately 0.02 s. This is significantly faster than any existing industry denoising algorithm. In addition, the proposed network processes shot gathers in a sequential order, which is an advantage compared with industry algorithms that typically require a multi-shot input to break the coherency of the noise.     

The marine controlled source electromagnetic response of a steel borehole casing: applications for the NEPTUNE Canada gas hydrate observatory

Gas hydrates are a potential energy resource, a possible factor in climate change and an exploration geohazard. The University of Toronto has deployed a permanent seafloor time‐domain controlled source electromagnetic (CSEM) system offshore Vancouver Island, within the framework of the NEPTUNE Canada underwater cabled observatory. Hydrates are known to be present in the area and due to their electrically resistive nature can be monitored by 5 permanent electric field receivers. However, two cased boreholes may be drilled near the CSEM site in the near future. To understand any potential distortions of the electric fields due to the metal, we model the marine electromagnetic response of a conductive steel borehole casing. First, we consider the commonly used canonical model consisting of a 100 Ωm, 100 m thick resistive hydrocarbon layer embedded at a depth of 1000 m in a 1 Ωm conductive host medium, with the addition of a typical steel production casing extending from the seafloor to the resistive zone. Results show that in both the frequency and time domains the distortion produced by the casing occurs at smaller transmitter‐receiver offsets than the offsets required to detect the resistive layer. Second, we consider the experimentally determined model of the offshore Vancouver Island hydrate zone, consisting of a 5.5 Ωm, 36 m thick hydrate layer overlying a 0.7 Ωm sedimentary half‐space, with the addition of two borehole casings extending 300 m into the seafloor. In this case, results show that the distortion produced by casings located within a 100 m safety zone of the CSEM system will be measured at 4 of the 5 receivers. We conclude that the boreholes must be positioned at least 200 m away from the CSEM array so as to minimize the effects of the casings.     

Non‐convex compressed sensing with frequency mask for seismic data reconstruction and denoising

Compressed Sensing has recently proved itself as a successful tool to help address the challenges of acquisition and processing seismic data sets. Compressed sensing shows that the information contained in sparse signals can be recovered accurately from a small number of linear measurements using a sparsity‐promoting regularization. This paper investigates two aspects of compressed sensing in seismic exploration: (i) using a general non‐convex regularizer instead of the conventional one‐norm minimization for sparsity promotion and (ii) using a frequency mask to additionally subsample the acquired traces in the frequency‐space () domain. The proposed non‐convex regularizer has better sparse recovery performance compared with one‐norm minimization and the additional frequency mask allows us to incorporate a priori information about the events contained in the wavefields into the reconstruction. For example, (i) seismic data are band‐limited; therefore one can use only a partial set of frequency coefficients in the range of reflections band, where the signal‐to‐noise ratio is high and spatial aliasing is low, to reconstruct the original wavefield, and (ii) low‐frequency characteristics of the coherent ground rolls allow direct elimination of them during reconstruction by disregarding the corresponding frequency coefficients (usually bellow 10 Hz) via a frequency mask. The results of this paper show that some challenges of reconstruction and denoising in seismic exploration can be addressed under a unified formulation. It is illustrated numerically that the compressed sensing performance for seismic data interpolation is improved significantly when an additional coherent subsampling is performed in the domain compared with the domain case. Numerical experiments from both simulated and real field data are included to illustrate the effectiveness of the presented method.     

The estimation of spectra from time‐frequency transforms for use in attenuation studies

We introduce the signal dependent time–frequency distribution, which is a time–frequency distribution that allows the user to optimize the tradeoff between joint time–frequency resolution and suppression of transform artefacts. The signal‐dependent time–frequency distribution, as well as the short‐time Fourier transform, Stockwell transform, and the Fourier transform are analysed for their ability to estimate the spectrum of a known wavelet used in a tuning wedge model. Next, the signal‐dependent time–frequency distribution, and fixed‐ and variable‐window transforms are used to estimate spectra from a zero‐offset synthetic seismogram. Attenuation is estimated from the associated spectral ratio curves, and the accuracy of the results is compared. The synthetic consisted of six pairs of strong reflections, based on real well‐log data, with a modeled intrinsic attenuation value of 1000/Q = 20. The signal‐dependent time–frequency distribution was the only time–frequency transform found to produce spectra that estimated consistent attenuation values, with an average of 1000/Q = 26±2; results from the fixed‐ and variable‐window transforms were 24±17 and 39±10, respectively. Finally, all three time–frequency transforms were used in a pre‐stack attenuation estimation method (the pre‐stack Q inversion algorithm) applied to a gather from a North Sea seismic dataset, to estimate attenuation between nine different strong reflections. In this case, the signal‐dependent time‐frequency distribution produced spectra more consistent with the constant‐Q model of attenuation assumed in the pre‐stack attenuation estimation algorithm: the average L1 residuals of the spectral ratio surfaces from the theoretical constant‐Q expectation for the signal‐dependent time‐frequency distribution, short‐time Fourier transform, and Stockwell transform were 0.12, 0.21, and 0.33, respectively. Based on the results shown, the signal‐dependent time‐frequency distribution is a time–frequency distribution that can provide more accurate and precise estimations of the amplitude spectrum of a reflection, due to a higher attainable time–frequency resolution.     

Quasi-periodic very low frequency emissions, very low frequency chorus, and geomagnetic Pc4 pulsations (Event on April 3, 2011)

The results of an analysis of ground-based observations of very low frequency (VLF) emissions in Scandinavia (L ∼ 5) in April 2011 are discussed. A detailed study is conducted of an non-typical event (April 3, 2011) of simultaneous generation of VLF chorus at frequencies below 3 kHz and quasi-periodic VLF emissions (QP) in the band of 4–6 kHz, which were not discrete emissions but consisted of separate short (about 20 s) bursts of hiss. It is shown that these emissions were mainly characterized by right-hand polarization, which indicates the location of the exit point of waves from the ionosphere near the point of ground observations. Based on an analysis of the spectral characteristics of emissions, it is concluded that the generation regions of chorus and QP emissions were located at different L shells. The appearance of QP emissions coincided with the excitation of resonance geomagnetic pulsations of the Pc4 range in the magnetosphere with a period that was close to the quasi-period of repetition of spectral forms in QP emissions. However, based on the available data, it is not possible to conclude that these geomagnetic pulsations caused the quasi-periodic generation of bursts of VLF hiss. The time shift between the peaks of QP and geomagnetic pulsations was inconsistent and varied from one burst of hiss to another. It is suggested that the discussed QP emissions were a result of the development of self-oscillations in the Earth’s radiation belts.     

Sonification of geophysical data through time–frequency analysis: theory and applications

In this paper, we introduce a new method of geophysical data interpretation based on simultaneous analysis of images and sounds. The final objective is to expand the interpretation workflow through multimodal (visual–audio) perception of the same information. We show how seismic data can be effectively converted into standard formats commonly used in digital music. This conversion of geophysical data into the musical domain can be done by applying appropriate time–frequency transforms. Using real data, we demonstrate that the Stockwell transform provides a very accurate and reliable conversion. Once converted into musical files, geophysical datasets can be played and interpreted by using modern computer music tools, such as sequencers. This approach is complementary and not substitutive of interpretation methods based on imaging. It can be applied not only to seismic data but also to well logs and any type of geophysical time/depth series. To show the practical implications of our integrated visual–audio method of interpretation, we discuss an application to a real seismic dataset in correspondence of an important hydrocarbon discovery.     

Improved structural interpretation of legacy 3D seismic data from Karee platinum mine (South Africa) through the application of novel seismic attributes

Seismic detection of faults, dykes, potholes and iron-rich ultramafic pegmatitic bodies is of great importance to the platinum mining industry, as these structures affect safety and efficiency. The application of conventional seismic attributes (such as instantaneous amplitude, phase and frequency) in the hard-rock environment is more challenging than in soft-rock settings because the geology is often complex, reflections disrupted and the seismic energy strongly scattered. We have developed new seismic attributes that sharpen seismic reflections, enabling additional structural information to be extracted from hard-rock seismic data. The symmetry attribute is based on the invariance of an object with respect to transformations such as rotation and reflection; it is independent of the trace reflection amplitude, and hence a better indicator of the lateral continuity of thin and weak reflections. The reflection-continuity detector attribute is based on the Hilbert transform; it enhances the visibility of the peaks and troughs of the seismic traces, and hence the continuity of weak reflections. We demonstrate the effectiveness of these new seismic attributes by applying them to a legacy 3D seismic data set from the Bushveld Complex in South Africa. These seismic attributes show good detection of deep-seated thin (∼1.5 m thick) platinum ore bodies and their associated complex geological structures (faults, dykes, potholes and iron-rich ultramafic pegmatites). They provide a fast, cost-effective and efficient interpretation tool that, when coupled with horizon-based seismic attributes, can reveal structures not seen in conventional interpretations.     

Definitive superparamagnetic source identification through spatial,temporal, and amplitude analysis of airborne electromagnetic data

The aim of this paper is to add confidence to existing methods using decay shape analysis to detect superparamagnetic responses in airborne electromagnetic data. While expensive to acquire, vertical spatial gradient measurements of the electromagnetic signals can discriminate near‐surface superparamagnetic sources. This research investigated the use of horizontal spatial gradients and amplitude information as further indicators of superparamagnetic. High horizontal gradients were shown both theoretically and in field data to help discriminate superparamagnetic from deep mineral targets. Further, superparamagnetic responses have characteristically small amplitudes inconsistent with realistic mineral exploration targets at shallow depths.     

Research Note: Frequency domain orthogonal projection filtration of surface microseismic monitoring data

We address the problem of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio during surface microseismic monitoring data processing. Interference from different seismic waves causes misleading results of microseismic event locations. Ground-roll suppression is particularly necessary. The standard noise suppression techniques assume regular and dense acquisition geometries. Many pre-processing noise suppression algorithms are designed for special types of noise or interference. To overcome these problems, we propose a novel general-purpose filtration method. The goal of this method is to amplify only the seismic waves that are excited in the selected target area and suppress all other signals. We construct a linear projector onto a frequency domain data subspace, which corresponds to the seismic emission of the target area. The novel filtration method can be considered an extension of the standard frequency–wavenumber flat wave filtration method for non-flat waves and arbitrary irregular receiver-position geometries. To reduce the effect of the uncertainty of the velocity model, we suggest using additional active shot data (typically the perforation shots), which provide static travel time corrections for the target area. The promising prospects of the proposed method are confirmed by synthetic and semi-synthetic data processing.     

地形对长偏移距瞬变电磁测深的影响研究(英文)

用基于张量格林函数的体积分方程法对三维异常体进行瞬变电磁响应的正演模拟,首先在频率域内计算电磁场分量的频率域响应,然后利用快速数字滤波技术将计算结果转换到时间域。设计和计算了水平电偶极子源激发下层状水平地层模型背景下的常见地形如山谷、山峰地形的模型,并考察分别把源和接收器放于这些地形中的瞬变电磁场响应,详细分析了这些地形对长偏移距瞬变电磁测深(LOTEM)的影响。结果表明,山谷和山峰地形对LOTEM的结果均有不同程度的影响。当电偶极子源放在山谷谷底时,地形对观测异常场的畸变非常严重;当接收器放在山谷中时,接收器处地形的影响强烈但该影响在空间和时间上只是局部的。总体来讲,不论山峰地形位于何处,其对LOTEM的影响相对较小。当地形处于发射源与接收器之间时,地形对LOTEM的影响非常小,表明在进行LOTEM勘探时,选择发射源的放置比接收器的位置更加重要,野外勘探是尽量把发射源选择在开阔的平坦位置。     

Fast imaging of subsurface conductors using very low‐frequency electromagnetic data

The study presents a fast imaging technique for the very low‐frequency data interpretation. First, an analytical expression was derived to compute the vertical component of the magnetic field at any point on the Earth's surface for a given current density distribution in a rectangular block on the subsurface. Current density is considered as exponentially decreasing with depth, according to the skin depth rule in a particular block. Subsequently, the vertical component of the magnetic field due to the entire subsurface was computed as the sum of the vertical component of the magnetic field due to an individual block. Since the vertical component of the magnetic field is proportional to the real part of very low‐frequency anomaly, an inversion program was developed for imaging of the subsurface conductors using the real very low‐frequency anomaly in terms of apparent current density distribution in the subsurface. Imaging results from the presented formulation were compared with other imaging techniques in terms of apparent current density and resistivity distribution using a standard numerical forward modelling and inversion technique. Efficacy of the developed approach was demonstrated for the interpretation of synthetic and field very low‐frequency data. The presented imaging technique shows improvement with respect to the filtering approaches in depicting subsurface conductors. Further, results obtained using the presented approach are closer to the results of rigorous resistivity inversion. Since the presented approach uses only the real anomaly, which is not sensitive to very small isolated near‐surface conducting features, it depicts prominent conducting features in the subsurface.