Three-dimensional inversion of controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotelluric data based on unstructured fi nite-element method

We propose a new 3D inversion scheme to invert the near-and transition-zone data of CSAMT with topography accurately.In this new method,the earth was discretized into unstructured tetrahedra to fit the ragged topography and the vector fi nite-element method was adopted to obtain precise responses and good sensitivity.To simulate the attitude and shape of the transmitter,we divided a long-grounded transmitter into dipoles and integrated these dipoles to obtain good responses in the near-and transition-fi eld zones.Next,we designed an L2 norm-based objective functional and applied a standard quasi-Newton method as the optimization method to solve the inverse problem and guarantee steady convergence.We tested our 3D inversion method first on synthetic data and then on a field dataset acquired from select sites near Changbai Mountain,China.In both tests,the new inversion algorithm achieved excellent fitting between the predicted and observed data,even in near-and transition-fi eld zones,and the inversion results agreed well with the true model.These fi ndings reveal that the proposed algorithm is eff ective for 3D inversion of CSAMT data.

Gravity compression forward modeling and multiscale inversion based on wavelet transform

The main problems in three-dimensional gravity inversion are the non-uniqueness of the solutions and the high computational cost of large data sets. To minimize the high computational cost, we propose a new sorting method to reduce fluctuations and the high frequency of the sensitivity matrix prior to applying the wavelet transform. Consequently, the sparsity and compression ratio of the sensitivity matrix are improved as well as the accuracy of the forward modeling. Furthermore, memory storage requirements are reduced and the forward modeling is accelerated compared with uncompressed forward modeling. The forward modeling results suggest that the compression ratio of the sensitivity matrix can be more than 300. Furthermore, multiscale inversion based on the wavelet transform is applied to gravity inversion. By decomposing the gravity inversion into subproblems of different scales, the non-uniqueness and stability of the gravity inversion are improved as multiscale data are considered. Finally, we applied conventional focusing inversion and multiscale inversion on simulated and measured data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed gravity inversion method.

3D forward modeling and response analysis for marine CSEMs towed by two ships

A dual-ship-towed marine electromagnetic （EM） system is a new marine exploration technology recently being developed in China. Compared with traditional marine EM systems, the new system tows the transmitters and receivers using two ships, rendering it unnecessary to position EM receivers at the seafloor in advance. This makes the system more flexible, allowing for different configurations （e.g., in-line, broadside, and azimuthal and concentric scanning） that can produce more detailed underwater structural information. We develop a three-dimensional goal-oriented adaptive forward modeling method for the new marine EM system and analyze the responses for four survey configurations. Ocean-ottom topography has a strong effect on the marine EM responses; thus, we develop a forward modeling algorithm based on the finite-element method and unstructured grids. To satisfy the requirements for modeling the moving transmitters of a dual-ship-towed EM system, we use a single mesh for each of the transmitter locations. This mitigates the mesh complexity by refining the grids near the transmitters and minimizes the computational cost. To generate a rational mesh while maintaining the accuracy for single transmitter, we develop a goal-oriented adaptive method with separate mesh refinements for areas around the transmitting source and those far away. To test the modeling algorithm and accuracy, we compare the EM responses calculated by the proposed algorithm and semi-analytical results and from published sources. Furthermore, by analyzing the EM responses for four survey configurations, we are confirm that compared with traditional marine EM systems with only in-line array, a dual-ship-towed marine system can collect more data.

3D parallel inversion of time-domain airborne EM data

To improve the inversion accuracy of time-domain airborne electromagnetic data, we propose a parallel 3D inversion algorithm for airborne EM data based on the direct Gauss-Newton optimization. Forward modeling is performed in the frequency domain based on the scattered secondary electrical field. Then, the inverse Fourier transform and convolution of the transmitting waveform are used to calculate the EM responses and the sensitivity matrix in the time domain for arbitrary transmitting waves. To optimize the computational time and memory requirements, we use the EM ＂footprint＂ concept to reduce the model size and obtain the sparse sensitivity matrix. To improve the 3D inversion, we use the OpenMP library and parallel computing. We test the proposed 3D parallel inversion code using two synthetic datasets and a field dataset. The time-domain airborne EM inversion results suggest that the proposed algorithm is effective, efficient, and practical.

Three-dimensional forward modeling for the SBTEM method using an unstructured fi nite-element method

In this study,we propose a three-dimensional(3D)forward modeling algorithm of surface-to-borehole transient electromagnetic(SBTEM)fields based on an unstructured vector fi nite-element method to analyze the characteristics of SBTEM responses for complex geoelectrical models.To solve the double-curl diff usion equation for the electric fi eld,we use an unstructured tetrahedral mesh to discretize the model domain and select the unconditionally stable backward Euler scheme to discretize the time derivative.In our numerical experiments,we use a grounded wire as a transmitting source.After validating the algorithm’s eff ectiveness,we first analyze the diffusion characteristics and detectability of the electromagnetic field.After that,we focus our attention on the distribution and the cause of zero bands for Ex and dBy/dt components with the hope of guiding future field surveys.Finally,by simulating diff erent models,we analyze the capability of the SBTEM method in detecting typical mineral veins so that we can provide a reference for mineral resource exploration in the deep earth.

Inversion of time-domain airborne EM data with IP effect based on Pearson correlation constraints

Due to the induced polarization(IP)eff ect,the sign reversal often occurs in timedomain airborne electromagnetic(AEM)data.The inversions that do not consider IP eff ect cannot recover the true umderground electrical structures.In view of the fact that there are many parameters of airborne induced polarization data in time domain,and the sensitivity diff erence between parameters is large,which brings challenges to the stability and accuracy of the inversion.In this paper,we propose an inversion mehtod for time-domain AEM data with IP effect based on the Pearson correlation constraints.This method uses the Pearson correlation coeffi cient in statistics to characterize the correlation between the resistivity and the chargeability and constructs the Pearson correlation constraints for inverting the objective function to reduce the non uniqueness of inversion.To verify the eff ectiveness of this method,we perform both Occam’s inversion and Pearson correlation constrained inversion on the synthetic data.The experiments show that the Pearson correlation constrained inverison is more accurate and stable than the Occam’s inversion.Finally,we carried out the inversion to a survey dataset with and without IP eff ect.The results show that the data misfit and the continuity of the inverted section are greatly improved when the IP eff ect is considered.

Fransdimensional Bayesian inversion of timedomain airborne EM data

To reduce the dependence of EM inversion on the choice of initial model and to obtain the global minimum, we apply transdimensional Bayesian inversion to time-domain airborne electromagnetic data. The transdimensional Bayesian inversion uses the Monte Carlo method to search the model space and yields models that simultaneously satisfy the acceptance probability and data fitting requirements. Finally, we obtain the probability distribution and uncertainty of the model parameters as well as the maximum probability. Because it is difficult to know the height of the transmitting source during flight, we consider a fixed and a variable flight height. Furthermore, we introduce weights into the prior probability density function of the resistivity and adjust the constraint strength in the inversion model by changing the weighing coefficients. This effectively solves the problem of unsatisfactory inversion results in the middle high-resistivity layer. We validate the proposed method by inverting synthetic data with 3% Gaussian noise and field survey data.