Constraining Euler Deconvolution Solutions Through Combined Tilt Derivative Filters

Abstract

Local phase filters as the tilt derivative (TDR) and the horizontal tilt derivative (TDX) are extensively used to interpret magnetic data. We use two combinations of these filters, namely TDR − TDX and TDR + TDX, to design a constraining mask that guides the Euler deconvolution moving data window. The TDR − TDX filter produces sharp peaks over the centers of the sources, while the TDR + TDX filter generates plateaus over them. Motivated by previous approaches that make use of the Laplacian filter or the analytic signal to constrain the Euler deconvolution window, we compute the solutions for windows centered at points that (1) have positive values of TDR − TDX and (2) are contained in the plateaus of TDR + TDX. The use of both criteria improves the selection of source-related points while reducing the number of spurious ones. Our method is tested in synthetic anomalies due to interfering dike-like sources and field data from southeast Brazil. The experiments show that the use of a constraining mask based on combined tilt filters produce Euler solutions that are more contiguous and less sensitive to noise than the traditional located-Euler deconvolution.