Influence of geomagnetic storms on the quality of magnetotelluric impedance

Abstract

Magnetotelluric (MT) field data contain natural electromagnetic signals and artificial noise sources (instrumental, anthropogenic, etc.). Not all available time-series data contain usable information on the electrical conductivity distribution at depth with a low signal-to-noise ratio. If variations in the natural electromagnetic signal increase dramatically in a geomagnetic storm, the signal-to-noise ratio increases. A more reliable impedance may be obtained using storm data in a noisy environment. The field datasets observed at mid-latitudes were used to investigate the effect of geomagnetic storms on MT impedance quality. We combined the coherence between the electric and magnetic fields and the result of the MT sounding curve to evaluate the MT impedance quality across all periods and combined the phase difference among the electric and magnetic fields, the polarization direction, and the hat matrix to discuss the data quality for a specific period simultaneously. The case studies showed that the utilization of the data observed during the geomagnetic storm could overcome the local noise and bring a more reliable impedance. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]