Magnetotelluric observational techniques on land

During the period since the Workshops in Sopron and Murnau we have witnessed some quite remarkable changes in the techniques employed in magnetotelluric (MT) observations. These changes have brought about significant improvements in the quality of MT data that can be gathered today. The new techniques are very likely to bring improvements in many areas beside MT, but are reviewed here in the light of the progress they have rendered possible for MT soundings on land. Three main subjects are covered in this review. The first one is concerned with the use of cryogenic or SQUID magnetometers. The new instruments are presented to the geomagnetist. An explanation of how these instruments work is given without, however, details of their operation and fabrication, and without showing that they usually have a much larger, i.e. better, signal-to-noise ratio than conventional magnetometers. Next, the method of the remote magnetic reference is examined. Originally the MT method assumed incident signals in the form of plane waves. While it is known today that incident wave amplitudes which vary linearly with distance are perfectly acceptable for MT soundings, there are many other higher order distortions of the incident signal which are not acceptable. Most of these high order or local perturbations are man-made and can seriously falsify MT data. All processes of MT data analysis try to minimize the errors caused by locally perturbed signals. But they are only partly successful, especially when the perturbations produce strong cross-power bias. The remote magnetic reference method has proved far superior in avoiding most of this cross-power as well as faulty autopower. The last section of this review deals with the use in the field of microcomputers or microprocessors. These have made it possible to process the data on the site already to such a degree that the sounding crew knows whether the sounding is proceeding satisfactorily, and can decide how best to continue the survey work. Of particular interest is digital filtering, which is especially easy with the microcomputer, and which may be used to avoid specific sources of perturbation.