Leveling airborne geophysical data using a unidirectional variational model

Airborne geophysical data leveling is an indispensable step to the conventional data processing. Traditional data leveling methods mainly explore the leveling error properties in the time and frequency domain. A new technique is proposed to level airborne geophysical data in view of the image space properties of leveling error, including directional distribution property and amplitude variety property. This work applied unidirectional variational model on entire survey data based on the gradient difference between the leveling errors in flight line direction and the tie-line direction. Then spatially adaptive multi-scale model is introduced to iteratively decompose the leveling errors which effectively avoid the difficulty on the parameter selection. Considering the anomaly data with large amplitude may hide the real data level, a leveling preprocessing method is given to construct a smooth field based on the gradient data. The leveling method can automatically extract the leveling errors of the entire survey area simultaneously without the participation of staff members or tie-line control. We have applied the method to the airborne electromagnetic, magnetic data, and apparent conductivity data collected by Ontario Geological Survey to confirm its validity and robustness by comparing the results with the published data.

Regional integration and 3D modeling of airborne geophysical data: Map of Geophysical Anomalies of Colombia for mineral resources, 2020 version

The Map of Geophysical Anomalies of Colombia for mineral resources, MAGC 2020 version compiles the geophysical information acquired, processed and interpreted by the Servicio Geológico Colombiano (SGC) since 2013. This information was collected via airborne platforms (aircrafts) using magnetometry and gamma spectrometry. This version covers approximately 547 960 km2 of the national territory in the Andean (North and Central), Eastern (Eastern Plains and Amazon) and Caribbean zones (Perijá mountain range). This information consists of 17 blocks of geoscientific interest, covered by flight lines separated by 500 and 1000m, for a total of more than 907 566 linear km of airborne information, acquired at a nominal altitude of 100 m above the ground, with a sampling resolution that was not previously available at this scale and coverage. This document presents the methodology for compiling, processing and representing the thematic coverage included in MAGC 2020: Map of Total field magnetic anomaly (TFMA), Map of the analytic signal (AS) and radiometric ternary map of the distribution of the relative concentrations of uranium, thorium and potassium. Furthermore, the work identifies 1079 magnetometric anomalies of interest, which were subsequently analyzed and modeled in the Map of magnetic sources modeled from magnetization vector inversion, which contains a total of 1297 magnetic bodies interpreted from these anomalies. Integration of available geological and metallogenic information with each of these bodies allow the suggestion of possible geological sources and possible exploration targets. The objectives of this study were to generate and integrate geophysical information to identify new areas of interest with regards to potential mineral resources, and to generate new geoscientific knowledge about Colombia for land-use planning.

Magnetic and gamma-ray spectrometric airborne geophysical data for investigating potential mineral resources and generating geoscientific knowledge in Colombia

The Servicio Geológico Colombiano has made available several airborne magnetometry and gamma-ray spectrometry datasets. The information was acquired in 15 blocks that cover approximately 520,000 square kilometers of Colombian territory, representing more than 850,000 linear kilometers of information. The data were collected along flight lines separated by 500 meters or 1000 meters, depending on the area, with sampling rates of 10 Hz (8 meters) and 1 Hz (80 meters) for the magnetometry and gamma-ray spectrometry data, respectively. The information is stored in 30 databases separated for each block and for each of the geophysical methods used. The Servicio Geológico Colombiano has provided a web portal that provides detailed specifications for each database and allows interested parties to see the terms and conditions to access the datasets and to check possible restrictions on access to information. To date, there is no geophysical database in Colombia with the coverage and resolution of these data sets, which will be very useful for geological research and research on potential mineral resources and to support geohazard monitoring, land-use planning and providing a baseline dataset for environmental monitoring.