Levelling aeromagnetic survey data without the need for tie‐lines

A new methodology that levels airborne magnetic data without orthogonal tie‐lines is presented in this study. The technique utilizes the low‐wavenumber content of the flight‐line data to construct a smooth representation of the regional field at a scale appropriate to the line lengths of the survey. Levelling errors are then calculated between the raw flight‐line data and the derived regional field through a least squares approach. Minimizing the magnitude of the error, with a first‐degree error function, results in significant improvements to the unlevelled data. The technique is tested and demonstrated using three recent airborne surveys.