3D tomographic inversion for frequency semi-airborne EM under multinary constraints

Abstract

The semi-airborne electromagnetic method (SAEM) has recently gained increased interest in geophysical exploration applications. For SAEM, ground-based transmitters are deployed within the area of interest or in its vicinity, and the induced magnetic is measured airborne. Because of the large footprint of extended transmitters, three-dimensional (3D) effects can have a significant impact on the gathered data and 3D modelling and inversion approaches must be employed for data analysis. Any 3D EM simulation is a resource-consuming task and efficient tools can therefore be useful to add data interpretation. In this study, 3D tomographic inversion of frequency-domain SAEM data was accomplished based on the integral equation (IE) method. The inversion was linearised by approximating the sensitivity matrix. We further employ the quasi-linear approximation to facilitate out quick forward modelling in the inversion which is tractable on field computers. While this approach sacrifices inversion accuracy for efficiency, we guide the inversion by introducing multinary constraints. These constraints impose a priori known conductivity values into the inversion process. Our results from synthetic and field data demonstrate the efficiency of our approach in achieving a coherent geophysical model that is consistent with geological data and findings from other geophysical techniques. This method provides a practical and capable solution for unveiling conductive 3D structures in the field.