Application of the marine circular electric dipole method in high latitude Arctic regions using drifting ice floes

Abstract

Theoretically, a circular electric dipole is a horizontal analogue of a vertical electric dipole and, similarly to the latter, it generates the unimodal transverse magnetic field. As a result, it demonstrates exceptionally high signal detectability and both vertical and lateral resolutions, particularly regarding thin resistive targets. The ideal circular electric dipole is represented by two concentric continuums of electrodes connected to different poles of the transmitter. In practice, the ideal dipole is adequately approximated by eight outer electrodes and one central electrode. The greatest disadvantage of circular electric dipoles stems from the necessity to provide perfectly symmetrical radial grounded lines with equal current in each line. In addition, relocating such a cumbersome system is very difficult on land and offshore. All these disadvantages might be significantly reduced in the proposed ice-borne system. The system utilizes drifting ice floes in high latitude Arctic regions as stable platforms for locating marine circular electric dipole transmitters, while the underlain ocean water is a perfect environment for grounding transmitter and receiver electrodes. Taking into account the limited size of drifting floes, mainly short offset methods can be applied from the surface. Among those, the proposed method is superior in providing sufficiently high signal detectability and resolution to delineate deep targets below very conductive ocean water and sub-seafloor sediments. Other existing methods, which are able to provide similar characteristics, utilize near bottom arrays and would be hard to employ in the presence of a thick ice cover.