A New Imaging Approach for Dipole–Dipole Time-Domain Electromagnetic Data Based on the q-Transform

Abstract

The inline dipole–dipole time-domain electromagnetic method is a useful supplementary tool for the exploration of a resistive target such as a hydrocarbon resource. Currently, the interpretation of the data from this configuration is based on the fitting of the modeled response and the recorded response in a least square sense. In the paper, we propose an imaging method based on a mathematical transformation named the q-transform, which could make the subsequent imaging of TEM data using the interpretation technique in seismic method possible. The imaging strategy is based on analytical derivation and analysis of the transformed wave-field from which pseudo-velocity and resistivity can be extracted. A numerical test is employed to get the transformed wave-field from the time-domain electromagnetic response with the selected regularization method. The proposed imaging method is tested on the synthetic data obtained from a homogeneous and layered half space models. The results reveal that it is a useful method to recover the resistivity of an underground medium and can provide an additional tool for fast and qualitative imaging of the subsurface resistivity.