A New Edge Enhancement Filter for the Interpretation of Magnetic Field Data

Abstract

One of the main goals of the interpretation of magnetic data is the imaging of the boundaries of subsurface structures. In this study, a new edge detector called improved horizontal tilt angle (impTDX) has been introduced and tested on synthetic and measured magnetic data. The filter exhibits high efficiency not only in detecting the boundaries of the sources, but also in determining magnetic sources from different depth levels. The impTDX filter produces more precise and sharper boundaries, increases the discernibility of neighboring anomalies, has the advantage of avoiding creation of false edges, and is less sensitive to noise compared to other known filters, which minimizes the uncertainty in the data interpretation. The proposed filter has been applied to aeromagnetic data from Sohag, Egypt. It highlighted the subsurface magnetic structures with high resolution where a structural map showing normal faults demarcating the subsurface causative horsts and grabens was constructed. This map confirms that the Nile grabens are of tectonic origin related to the opening of the Red Sea. Our findings indicate that the proposed filter can be considered as a valuable tool in mapping of subsurface magnetic structures.