2-D electromagnetic modeling by finite‐element method with a dipole source and topography

Abstract

I present a method for calculating frequency‐domain electromagnetic responses caused by a dipole source over a 2-D structure. In modeling controlled‐source electromagnetic data, it is usual to separate the electromagnetic field into a primary (background) and a secondary (scattered) field to avoid a source singularity, and only the secondary field caused by anomalous bodies is computed numerically. However, this conventional scheme is not effective for complex structures lacking a simple background structure. The present modeling method uses a pseudo‐delta function to distribute the dipole source current, and does not need the separation of the primary and the secondary field. In addition, the method employs an isoparametric finite‐element technique to represent realistic topography. Numerical experiments are used to validate the code. Finally, a simulation of a source overprint effect and the response of topography for the long‐offset transient electromagnetic and the controlled‐source magnetotelluric measurements is presented.