Interpretation Of Transient Electromagnetic Data Research Articles

Turn-Off Current and TEM Field Based on Distributed Capacitance Model of Multiple Coils in Helicopter Transient Electromagnetic System

For compensating the primary field coupling from the transmitting coil and the sensing coil, the bucking coil is often used to achieve pure secondary field for the helicopter transient electromagnetic (HTEM) system. Traditionally, the distributed capacitance of the bucking coil and the transmitting coil is ignored and pay few attentions to study it. In fact, it has very important influence on the turn-off current of the transmitter and the transient electromagnetic (TEM) field of the system. In this paper, a novel distributed capacitance model of the HTEM coils is theoretically established at the first time, its effects on the turn-off current and the TEM field are analyzed in detail. It finds that the turn-off current in the transmitting coil and the bucking coil are not equal caused by the distributed capacitance although they are connected in series. The field experiments are completed and proved that the measured TEM fields agree very well with the simulated results based on the distributed capacitance model. This is very helpful to optimize the early-time TEM field and promote the shallow TEM data interpretation capability for the HTEM surveying.

Improving Inversion Quality of IP-Affected TEM Data Using Dual Source

The induced polarization (IP) effects in transient electromagnetic (TEM) responses pose difficulties to the TEM data interpretation and inversion. The IP effects break the monotony in TEM decay curves and can even cause sign reversals and lead to the singularity and non-monotony of inversion. The singularity problem is still urgent to be solved. In this paper, the forward modeling method of IP-affected TEM responses is developed using the Cole–Cole model and a frequency-time domain transformation. A TEM data acquisition scheme using a dual-source method without a significant increase in field work is proposed to weaken the singularity and improve the inversion quality finally. Based on the modeling and analysis, the dual-source scheme is designed to guarantee all stations be measured twice with different loops. The joint inversion of dual-source datasets is realized by using an objective combing function and the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The synthetic data test proved the validity of the algorithm and illustrated that the joint dual-source method greatly weakened the singularity and stabilized the inversion. The field example of the Baiyun golden deposit showed well consistency with resistivity logging and TEM logging results and predicted the gold mineralization below 2000 m.

3D electromagnetic modeling of graphitic faults in the Athabasca Basin using a finite-volume time-domain approach with unstructured grids

Uranium exploration in the Athabasca Basin, Canada, relies heavily on ground-based transient electromagnetic (TEM) surveys to target thin, steeply dipping graphitic conductors that are often closely related to the uranium ore deposits. The interpretation of TEM data is important in identifying the locations and trends of conductors to guide subsequent drilling campaigns. We develop a trial-and-error modeling approach and demonstrate its application to the interpretation of a data set acquired at the Close Lake in the Athabasca Basin. The modeling process has two key tasks: building geoelectric models and computing their TEM responses. The modeling process is repeated with the geoelectric model being iteratively refined based on the match between three-component calculated and measured data from early to late times. To create geoelectric models, we first build a realistic geologic model and discretize it using an unstructured tetrahedral mesh, with each mesh cell populated with appropriate resistivities. To calculate the TEM responses of the geoelectric model, we use a 3D finite-volume time-domain algorithm. We construct our initial model based on existing geologic information and drilling data. We find that this modeling process is flexible and can easily handle thin, steeply dipping conductive graphitic fault models with variable resistivities in the fault and background and with topography. Our interpretation of the Close Lake data matches well with the trend and location of the main conductor as revealed by drilling data and also confirms the existence of a smaller conductor that only caused noticeable anomalous responses in early-time horizontal-component data. The smaller conductor was suggested by previous electromagnetic data but was missed in a recent interpretation based on the modeling of only late-time vertical-component data with plate-based approximate modeling methods.

Inversion of IP-Affected TEM Responses and Its Application in High Polarization Area

The transient electromagnetic (TEM) responses measured in areas with highly polarizable media commonly show induced polarization (IP) effects, which poses difficulties to the TEM data interpretation and inversion with conventional methods. When present, the IP effects break the monotony in TEM decay curves and can even cause sign reversals, and lead to the singularity and non-monotony of inversion method. It is therefore important to take the IP effects into account when processing those TEM data. In this paper, a new inversion method is developed to invert TEM data with IP effects. The Cole-Cole model was introduced to the forward modeling solver so that the IP effects can be accurately calculated. The regularization terms were adapted to the objective function and a global optimization method, the particle swarm optimization algorithm, was used to solve the optimization problem, which weakened the singularity and non-monotony of the inversion greatly. Field data were collected in Wulong gold mine where IP effects were detected. The data were inverted using the method developed in this paper, and the inversion results were able to identify the depth extension of NO. 163 ore-bearing quartz veins and their associated fine-grained diorite veins. The global inversion method in this paper primarily solved the inversion problem of IP-affected TEM responses, and recovered the polarization parameters, which can be used as an aid to the geological interpretation.

In-Loop Transient Electromagnetic Responses With Induced Polarization Effects of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Deposits

A transient electromagnetic (TEM) system using a small loop source is advantageous to the development of compact autonomous instruments, which are well suited to a submersible-based survey. Since the electrical conductivity of subseafloor materials can be frequency dependent, these induced polarization (IP) effects may affect the reliability of TEM data interpretation. In this paper, we investigate the IP effects on the TEM responses of deep-sea hydrothermal mineral deposits with a thin sediment cover. Time-domain target signals are larger and appear earlier in horizontal magnetic fields than in vertical magnetic fields. The IP effects cause transient magnetic fields to enhance initially, to decay rapidly, and then to reverse the polarity. The dc conductivity and chargeability in Cole–Cole parameters influence the time of sign reversals and the enhancement of target responses, simultaneously. A damped least squares inversion scheme is applied to reconstruct a polarizable hydrothermal deposit model using synthetic TEM sounding data sampled from a time interval before the sign reversal. The test example demonstrates that the Cole–Cole parameters of a highly conductive layer can be resolved more effectively from vertical magnetic fields than from horizontal magnetic fields.

Transient electromagnetic S‐inversion in tunnel prediction

This paper presents S‐inversion method to tunnel prediction to forecasting water‐filled faults or fracture zones ahead of the front wall of a tunnel during tunnel excavation. S‐inversion is an interpretation method of transient electromagnetic (TEM) data using the second derivative of the conductivity parameter based on the moving thin sheet approach. It is suggested for the technology of second derivative of vertical apparent conductivity, which is traditionally used in surface TEM data interpretation, the theoretical analyses and the method of numerical calculation in detail are also given. Finally, a real tunnel forecasting is studied for TEM surveys, and results show that the proposed method is effective and successful for exploring and predicting unfavorable geology during tunnel construction.

Impulsive moments at work

The moments of the impulse response are a new tool for the interpretation of transient electromagnetic data. The nth moment is the integral of the impulse response weighted by time to the nth power. The zeroth- and first-order moment are equivalent to the inductive and resistive limits and the higher-order moments place emphasis on the late time data. A good approximation to the moments can be calculated relatively easily from the measured data. Also, for some simple models, the formulae for the moments are relatively simple expressions. Hence, it is comparatively easy to invert these expressions to derive source parameters from the measured moments. For example, the conductance of a thin sheet or the conductivity of a halfspace can be derived from the low-order moments. There are no analytic expressions for the high-order moments of a half-space, so the concept of realizable moments has been introduced to allow the higher-order realizable moments to be converted to a conductivity or conductance estimate. The moment data have been shown numerically to be additive. This has two ramifications. 1) The earth can be approximated by a multiplicity of small spheres and the properties of these spheres can be inverted for. A prototype-imaging scheme which does this gives promising results. 2) The regional or background response can be subtracted from the data and the residual anomaly can be modelled. Because the modeling algorithms are fast, they can be incorporated into inversion schemes linked to database packages such as Geosoft montaj.

Inversion of SIROTEM Data from Bowmans and Beaufort Coal Deposits

The interpretation of transient electromagnetic data is difficult because of the complexity of the equations describing the electric and magnetic fields. However, this problem can often be solved in practice by a method of computer inversion where observed data is used to determine optimal parameters for a one-dimensional, horizontally layered model. This study shows that the application of this technique to SIROTEM data taken at two sites in South Australia generally indicates very close agreement with interpreted geology derived from drillers logs.