The Ground-source Airborne Time-domain Electromagnetic (GATEM) system has advantages for high efficiency and complex areas such as mountainous zone. Because of ignoring the impact of flight height, the section interpretation method seriously affects the interpretation and imaging accuracy of shallow anomalies. The PID controller iteration downward continuation method is proposed. Based on the original iteration
continuation method, the differential coefficient and integral coefficient are added. The result shows that the new method remarkably decreases the iteration number, and the accuracy are verified by comparison with the numerical integration solution. The PID controller iteration downward continuation method is applied to the interpretation of GATEM data. For synthetic data, the interpretation results of continued electromagnetic
response are closer to the true model than the z = 30 m interpretation results. The method is also applied to GATEM field data in Yangquan City, Shanxi Province, China. The interpretation results perform reliability using PID controller iteration downward continuation method in a GATEM field.