Two and three dimensional magnetotelluric inversion. Final report.

摘要

Electrical conductivity depends on properties such as the presence of ionic fluids in interconnected pores that are difficult to sense with other remote sensing techniques. Thus improved imaging of underground electrical structure has wide practical importance in exploring for groundwater, mineral and geothermal resources, and in assessing the diffusion of fluids in oil fields and waste sites. Because the electromagnetic inverse problem is fundamentally multi-dimensional, most imaging algorithms saturate available computer power long before they can deal with the complete data set. We have developed an algorithm to directly invert large multi-dimensional data sets that is orders of magnitude faster than competing methods. We have proven that a two-dimensional (2D) version of the algorithm is highly effective for real data and have made substantial progress towards a three-dimensional (3D) version. We are proposing to cure identified shortcomings and substantially expand the utility of the existing 2D program, overcome identified difficulties with extending our method to three-dimensions (3D) and embark on an investigation of related EM imaging techniques which may have the potential for even further increasing resolution.