Inversion of the amplitude of the two-dimensional analytic signal of the magnetic anomaly by the particle swarm optimization technique

Abstract

Amplitude of the 2-D analytic signal of the magnetic anomaly profile is independent of the directions of the Earth's magnetic field vector and remnant magnetization of the causative source. It exhibits peaks corresponding to the locations of the corners of a causative source, modelled by say a polygon. It also exhibits a peak corresponding to different idealized source geometries related to the structural indices. This amplitude is computed from the first-order horizontal and vertical derivatives of the observed magnetic anomaly and is relatively less noisy than second-order derivatives. The amplitude can also be computed directly from the measured derivatives. Particle swarm optimization (PSO)-a global optimization technique is applied to interpret this amplitude in terms of the horizontal location and depth, constant (related to magnetization) and various source geometries through structural indices. Applicability of the proposed technique is evaluated through the analyses of simulated magnetic anomalies (noise-free and corrupted with 20 per cent random noise) over different types of source geometries, namely, a thin dyke and a contact with high accuracy in parameter estimation. Studies on the choices of search parameter space reveal that a relatively wide search space can be assigned. Practical applicability of the proposed technique has been demonstrated through three magnetic anomaly profiles digitized from published literature. The results of PSO, Euler deconvolution, enhanced local wavenumber and drill hole are comparable. PSO results also seem to be more stable than other techniques. © 2010 The Authors Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.