Equivalent-Source from 3D Inversion Modeling for Magnetic Data Transformation

Abstract

The well-known non-uniqueness in modeling of potential-field data results in an infinite number of models that fit the data almost equally. This non-uniqueness concept is exploited to devise a method to transform the magnetic data based on their equivalent-source. The unconstrained 3D magnetic inversion modeling is used to obtain the anomalous sources, i.e. 3D magnetization distribution in the subsurface. Although the 3D model fitting the data is not geologically feasible, it can serve as an equivalent-source. The transformations, which are commonly applied to magnetic data (reduction to the pole, reduction to the equator, upward and downward continuation), are the response of the equivalent-source with appropriate kernel functions. The application of the method to both synthetic and field data showed that the transforma-tion of magnetic data using the 3D equivalent-source gave satisfactory results. The method is relatively more stable than the filtering technique, with respect to the noise present in the data.