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4.4
Measuring technique
The TEM method applies an ungrounded loop as
transmitter coil. The current in the coil is abruptly
turned off, and the rate of change of the
secondary field due to the induced eddy currents
in the ground is measured in the receiver coil,
usually an induction coil. The primary field is
therefore absent while measuring. Figure 4.4.1
summarizes the basic nomenclature and
principles.
Typical measuring parameters for a groundbased
system are: 1 20 ms on-time, 1 30 s turn-off
ramp and 1 20 ms off-time for measuring. The
depicted waveform is often referred to as a
square waveform. Other waveforms with sine or
triangular shapes are used, but mainly in airborne
systems.
The datasets are recorded in decay-timewindows, often called gates. The gates are
arranged with a logarithmically increasing width
to improve the signal/noise (S/N) ratio especially
at late-times. This recording principle is called
log-gating and 810 gates per decade in decaytime are commonly used.
As shown in Figure 4.4.1, the current polarities in
the transmitter coil and hence the primary
magnetic field alternates for each single pulse. A
typical sounding consists of 1,000 10,000
repeated single pulses (transients). The sign
changes in the primary magnetic field are applied
for suppression of: 1) the coherent noise signals
from power lines, if the repetition frequency is
chosen as a sub harmonics of the power line
frequency and 2) offsets of the instrumental
amplifiers. This measuring technique is referred
to as synchronous detection.
Field procedures
When performing fieldwork, a transient
electromagnetic sounding can be conducted by
placing a wire in a square loop on the ground as
the transmitter coil, Tx-coil. When investigating
the upper 150 m of the ground, a square loop
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66
Figure
4.4.3
indicates
power
function
dependence at late-times. At late-times, the
impulse response can be written as
52
b z - I 3 2 0 a 2 -5 2
t
t
20 1 2
(4.4.1)
Ia2
5 3
)1 / 2 01 3 t -5 3
20 bz t
(4.4.2)
67
zd =
2t
1.26 t [m] ,
[m], t [s]
(4.4.3)
68
tL = (
M
)2 / 5
20 Vnoise
( )3 / 5
(4.4.4)
When tL is equivalent with the diffusion time td
zd = (
2 1 / 10
)
25 3
M 1/ 5
M 1/ 5
)
= 0.551 (
)
Vnoise
Vnoise
(4.4.5)
Distortion of datasets due to coupling to manmade electrical installations is not noise in the
same sense as the random electromagnetic
background noise described in the noise section.
Coupling noise is a distortion and relates to
induced currents in all man-made electrical
conductors. The distortion has a deterministic
character, arising at the same delay time for all
decays and will therefore be summed in the
stacking process. Coupling distortion in datasets
cannot be accurately removed to provide a
reliable interpretation; therefore soundings
located close to man-made installations such as
pipelines, cables, power lines, rails, auto guards
and metal fences cannot be interpreted, and the
dataset should be culled.
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70
Calibration
A compromise is to use a high-power system
with small transmitter loop, where early-time
data are measured in the central loop
configuration with a small current of 1 3 A.
Late-time data are, in turn, measured in the
offset configuration with maximum output
current. In this way the four issues are addressed,
and the field productivity can still be kept high.
The 1D model
To this day it is not possible to invert TEM
datasets in more than one dimension on a
routine basis. 3D inversion codes have been
developed lately, but they are still computationally very demanding, and require densely
measured datasets in at least two dimensions.
Therefore, it is inevitable that geological noise,
i.e. insufficient model presentation of the actual
structure, is present when describing a 3D
structure by a 1D model. The distribution of 2D
and 3D structures decides the amount of
geological noise.
Altitude
71
Flight speed
An important tool for increasing the S/N ratio in
electromagnetic measurements is to perform
stacking of the measurements.
In TEM measurements the background noise is
reduced by stacking the transients. To achieve a
required S/N ratio, a certain number of transients
are necessary in the stack.
When the system is moving while measuring, a
trade-off exists between the lateral and the
vertical resolution of the Earth parameters
because a flight velocity related time interval is
needed to collect the transients for the required
stack size.
The vertical resolution is related to the S/N ratio
determined by the stack size. A certain stack size
corresponds to a defined acquisition time
interval.
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73
Fig. 4.4.8:
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