Combining tilt derivative filters: New approaches to enhance magnetic anomalies

Abstract

We extend the concept of two earlier enhancement techniques based on the local phase of the magnetic anomaly, namely the vertical (TDR) and horizontal (TDX) tilt angles, which are defined by the inverse tangent of ratios involving the total horizontal gradient and the vertical derivative. These filters are useful to locate both shallow and deep sources, because they equalize the signal amplitudes. The proposed approach is based on the addition and subtraction of TDR and TDX. The TDR+TDX filter produces constant values over the causative bodies, while TDR-TDX generates peaks over the center of bodies and is constant out of them. By applying the proposed techniques to synthetic and aeromagnetic data we show that they locate more clearly the centers and edges of the sources in comparison to TDR and TDX, respectively. The combined filters have essentially the same computational cost as TDR and TDX and can replace them as auxiliary interpretation tools.