4.

4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

4.4

The transient electromagnetic

method (TEM)

4.4.1 Basic principles and measuring

techniques in TEM
By the transient electromagnetic method, TEM,
the electrical resistivity of the underground layers
down to a depth of several hundred meters can
be measured. Groundbased measurements as
well as airborne surveys (SkyTEM) to cover large
areas are possible. The method was originally
designed for mineral investigations. Over the last
two decades the TEM method has become
increasingly popular for hydrogeological purposes
as well as general geological mapping.
The electromagnetic geophysical methods are all
based upon the fact that a magnetic field varies
in time the primary field and thus, according
to the Maxwell equations, induces an electrical
current in the surroundings e.g. the ground
which is a conductor. The associated electrical
and magnetic fields are called the secondary
fields.

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.

Fig. 4.4.1: Basic nomenclature and principles of the

TEM method. (a) Shows the current in the
transmitter loop. (b) Is the induced electromotive
force in the ground, and (c) is the secondary
magnetic field measured in the receiver coil. For the
graphs of the induced electromotive force and the
secondary magnetic field, it is assumed, that the
receiver coil is located in the centre of the
transmitter loop.

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

65

KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

with an area of 40 x 40 m is commonly used.

The receiver coil, Rx-coil, with a diameter of
approximately 1 m is placed in the centre of the
transmitter coil.

The TEM principle

The measurements are carried out by ejecting a
current in the Tx-loop. This results in a static
primary magnetic field. The current is turned off
abruptly and the related change in the primary
magnetic field induces an electromotive force in
the conducting surroundings. In the ground, this
electrical field will result in a current which again
will result in a magnetic field, the secondary field.
Just after the transmitter is switched off, the
secondary magnetic field from the current in the
ground will be equivalent to the primary
magnetic field (which is no longer there). As time
passes by, the resistance in the ground will still
weaken the current (converted to heat), and the
current density maximum will eventually move
outwards and downwards, leaving the current
density still weaker.

Fig. 4.4.2: Field setup of a TEM system: a) Shows

a central loop configuration, b) an offset-loop
configuration. Rx denotes the receiver, Tx the
transmitter, l the side length of the loop and h the
offset between Tx-coil and Rx-coil centres.

4.4.2 Data curves

The decaying secondary magnetic field is referred
to as b or the step response. However, because
an induction coil is used for measurements of the
magnetic field, the actual measurement is that of
db/dt, the impulse response (the induced
electromotive force is proportional to the time
derivative of the magnetic flux passing the coil).
The impulse response, db/dt is plotted in Figure
4.4.3 for a variety of halfspace resistivities.

The decaying secondary magnetic field is vertical

in the middle of the Tx-loop (at least if the
ground consists in plane and parallel layers).
Hereby an electromotive force is induced in the
Rx-coil. This signal is measured as a function of
time.
Just after the current in the Tx-loop is turned off,
the current in the ground will be close to the
surface, and the measured signal reflects
primarily the resistivity of the top layers. At later
decay-times the current has diffused deeper into
the ground, and the measured signal then
contains information about the resistivity of the
deeper layers. Measuring the current in the Rxcoil will therefore give information about the
resistivity as a function of depth.
The configurations shown in Figure 4.4.2 have
the receiver coil placed in the centre of the Tx-coil
and is called a central loop or an in-loop
configuration. The receiver coil can be placed
outside the Tx-loop which results in an offsetloop configuration.

66

Fig. 4.4.3: In a) the impulse responses (db/dt) for a

homogeneous halfspace with varying resistivities are
presented (black lines). The same curves converted
to a are shown in b). The grey line is the response
of a two-layer earth with 100 m in layer 1 and 10
m in layer 2. Layer 1 is 40 m thick.

4.4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

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)

As seen db/dt has a decay development

-5/2
proportional to t . Observation of the decaying
magnetic field in Figure 4.4.3 is not very
informative and the same applies for actually
measured sounding curves. A plot of apparent
resistivity, a, is more illustrative. It is derived from
the late-time approximation of the impulse
response
a = (

Ia2
5 3
)1 / 2 01 3 t -5 3
20 bz t

(4.4.2)

The response curves plotted in Figure 4.4.3a are

shown as a-converted curves in Figure 4.4.3b.
The a-converted curves can be used as a data
quality tool and as first estimate of the resistivity
levels of the underground structure.

4.4.3 Background noise

A geophysical datum always consists of two
numbers the measurement itself and the
uncertainty of the measurement.
One single transient is affected significantly by
the electromagnetic background noise. By
repeating and stacking the measurement the
background noise is decreased and the signal
enhanced. Generally, a TEM sounding may
consists of 1,000 to 10,000 single transients.
Figure 4.4.4 shows stacks of 50 single transients
and a stack of 5,000 single transients. It is
obvious that a sounding with 5,000 stacked
transients has a much better signal-to-noise ratio,
S/N ratio, compared to the stack with 50
transients.

Fig. 4.4.4: TEM sounding curves stacked with 50

transients (grey) and 5,000 transients (black).

The electromagnetic background noise originates

from various sources. Most sources, such as
lightnings, are very distant. The fields from these
sources travel around the globe in the wave
guide cavity between the surface of the Earth
and the ionosphere. This noise has a random
character, and it is more powerful during the day
than during the night and stronger during
summer compared to winter.
Background noise also originates from the power
supply and the related man-made electrical
installations. There are partly the 50 or 60 Hz
signals and its harmonics, which have a
deterministic character, partly the transient fields,
which are of a random character and related to
current changes in the power lines, when various
installations are turned on or off. The
deterministic part of the background noise from
the power supply is removed by synchronous
detection techniques, as mentioned before.

67

KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

With well-designed equipment the noise

contribution from the electronics in the
instrument itself is negligible compared to the
noise contributions described above. It can be
shown that using the log-gating technique,
random noise contributions are decreasing
-1/2
proportional to t .
It is evident that the signal level of measurements
at early-times in most cases is many times larger
than the noise level. This implies that the S/N
ratio is high, and the uncertainty of the
measurements is low at early-times. At later
decay-times the decay signal is proportional to
-5/2
t . As the random noise level is proportional to
-1/2
t it implies that the transition from a good S/N
ratio to a poor S/N ratio happens quite suddenly.
There are two ways to obtain datasets of a
satisfactory S/N ratio at later decay-times, i.e.
information from larger depths: 1) reduce the
noise by increasing stack size or 2) increase the
transmitted moment.
Stacking reduces the noise proportional to N
where N is the number of measurements in the
stack. The effect of increasing the moment is
shown in Figure 4.4.5 with the black dotted line.
The line indicates the level of a sounding at the
same location with a ten times larger moment
and it is clear that the S/N ratio is much higher at
later decay-times increased by a factor of ten.

4.4.4 Penetration depth

In relation to TEM soundings it is difficult, as for
all other geophysical methods, to speak
quantitatively and unambiguously about the
penetration depth. In the following we will state
some rules of thumb.
The depth down to which the current system has
diffused is called the diffusion depth. This depth,
zd, is defined by

zd =

2t
1.26 t [m] ,

[m], t [s]

(4.4.3)

68

Fig. 4.4.5: TEM sounding and noise measurements.

The grey curves are noise measurements with the
-1/2
t trend plotted with the thick dashed grey line.
Error bars are 5%. The earth response is the black
curves. The black dotted line indicates the
approximate level of a sounding with a 10 times
higher transmitter moment.

This is an exact equation for plane fields only. For

circular or quadratic loop sources the diffusion
depth is about 1.8 times smaller than estimated
by Equation 4.4.3.
As seen in the Figure 4.4.3, the signal decreases
-5/2
in a homogenous halfspace by t , and when the
signal passes the level of the background noise,
we can no longer use the measurements. Thus,
the level of the background noise sets the limits
for how late we can use our measurements. By
using the expression given for dbz/dt for latetimes we find a relationship between the noise
signal, Vnoise, and the latest decay-time at which
we can make measurements:

4.4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

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)

dataset within the estimated uncertainties are

called
equivalent
models.
Sometimes
equivalences can be very pronounced in the
sense that very different models give rise to
almost identical responses.
Equivalence appears in relation to thin good
conductors embedded in resistive surrounding
and vice versa. In these cases the resolution of
the thin layers may be poor resolved.

From these expressions it is seen that the

maximal diffusion depth, which is a measure for
the penetration depth, is proportional to the fifth
root of the ratio between the moment of the
current loop and the product of the conductivity
and the noise level. The only way to increase the
penetration depth is to increase the moment of
the transmitter or decrease the effective noise
level, being the noise level after stacking and
gating. The background noise is a relatively
unchangeable size, but the way in which we
gather and process our datasets, by stacking
many measurements, reduces the effective noise.
To double the penetration depth, the effective
noise has to be reduced or the moment of
the transmitter has to be increased by a factor
32.

4.4.6 Coupling to man-made installations

4.4.5 Resolution and equivalence

The safe distance, defined as the minimum

distance where undistorted datasets can be
measured, is counted as the distance between
any point on the transmitter-receiver setup and
the man-made conductor. The safe distance to
any man-made conductor is at least 100 m over
an earth with an overall resistivity of 40 60 m.
The safe distance increases with the resistivity.

The induced eddy currents are predominantly

flowing in the good conducting formations.
Therefore the resistivity and the layer boundaries
of good conductors are very often well resolved.
The eddy currents decay fast in high resistive
layers and only weak measurable signals are
produced. Hence in the presence of good
conductors these signals often are neglectable
and the resistivity level of high resistive
formations is poorly resolved. In contrary, the
layer boundaries may be resolved as these will
coincidence with the boundaries of good
conductors. The geometry of the high resistive
formations may therefore be resolved.
As mentioned before a geophysical measurement
is described by its value and the uncertainty
estimate on this value. Models that produce
responses which compare to the measured

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.

4.4.7 Modelling and interpretation

Data acquisition
As mentioned in the introduction, a main issue in
applying the TEM method for hydrogeological
studies is the demand for accurate and
undisturbed datasets with high spatial density.
Insufficient data quality makes it impossible to
obtain a reliable geophysical model for use in a
hydrogeological context.

69

KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

An important element of the data quality is the

precise knowledge of the parameters of the
applied instrument. To obtain datasets of
sufficient quality, the following instrumental
parameters must be known and modelled in the
data modelling algorithm:

The transmitted waveform characteristics,

including the exact appearance of the current
turn-off and turn-on ramps and the timing
between the transmitter and the receiver
actions. Timing parameters must be known
to an accuracy of 100 200 nanoseconds,
because of their severe impact on early-time
data.

The receiver transfer function, which is

modelled by one or more low-pass filters,
often has a strong influence on early-time
data. Low-pass filters are implemented in the
receiver system to stabilize the amplifiers and
to suppress the noise from long-wave radio
transmitters.

Measuring in the central-loop configuration

with a small transmitter coil and high output
current may saturate the receiver amplifiers
due to high voltages arising from the turn-off
of the primary field. After saturation,
amplifiers will produce distorted signals for
several milliseconds. Furthermore, currents of
the order of nanoamperes will leak in the
transmitter coil after the current is turned off,
adding to the earth's response and thereby
to the distortion of the datasets. Both effects
become negligible because of geometry
when using either a small output current
with a large transmitter loop or a large offset
between the transmitter and the receiver
coils. Thus high-output current datasets using
a small transmitter coil must be measured in
the offset-loop configuration, while low
current datasets can be measured in the
central-loop configuration.

The induced polarization (IP) effect is present

in datasets measured in some sedimentary
environments. The IP effect is most
pronounced in datasets from the central-loop
configuration, but moves to later decay-times
when increasing the transmitter coil size. In
offset configurations the IP effect is less
pronounced and moves to later decay-times
as the offset between the transmitter and the
receiver coil is increased.

At early times, measurements using the

offset configuration are extremely sensitive to
small variations in the resistivity in the near
surface. Extensive 3D modelling of such
variations shows a pronounced influence on
the measured datasets as the current system
passes beneath the receiver coil. In many
cases these datasets are not interpretable
with a 1D model, even if the section is
predominantly 1D. At later times, after the
current system has passed, the distorting
influence has decayed. Datasets from the
central-loop configuration are much less
affected by near-surface resistivity variations.

Datasets from the offset configuration are

sensitive to small deviations in the array
geometry. As an example assuming a 60 m
half-space model, a 30% error in the decay
signal is apparent near the sign change if the
receiver coil is located 71 m instead of 70 m

The geometry of the transmitter-receiver

configuration must be accurate, especially for
the offset-loop configuration. Central-loop
datasets are relatively insensitive to deviations
in geometry as long as the transmitter area is
unchanged.

Measuring datasets with a high spatial density

serves two purposes: 1) the resolution of
geological structures is improved and 2) distorted
datasets caused by instrument malfunction and
transmitter-induced coupling to man-made
conductors can be revealed and eliminated. The
latter is by far the most important.

Configurations, advantages and drawbacks

Ground-based TEM systems using a high
transmitter moment normally utilize a transmitter
loop of 40 100 m. The advantages of a large
loop are that measurements can be carried out at
the centre of the loop, and that the magnetic
moment is large. The drawbacks are the low field
efficiency and the higher possibility of coupling
with man-made installations. A small transmitter
coil with a high current is very field efficient, but
four issues must be tackled in the configuration
design:

70

4.4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

from the transmitter. In a routine field

situation, it is next to impossible to work with
such accuracy. After the sign change,
datasets from the offset configuration is
essentially equivalent to that of a central-loop
configuration.

number of key issues need to be addressed to

achieve this high data quality. The issues are
mainly related to calibration, altitude and the
flight speed.

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.

4.4.8 Airborne TEM

Below we will present an overview of the
requirements to airborne EM systems, especially
TEM, and discuss the specific topics where the
airborne and the ground based techniques differ.
We will focus on the relatively new helicopter
system, SkyTEM, as it provides the sufficient
accuracy
necessary
for
groundwater
investigations. Hence the following comment on
the main issues for airborne TEM is related to the
application of the SkyTEM method.

In the context of requiring high data quality, the

calibration of the transmitter/receiver system
plays a central role.
When airborne systems operate in the frequency
domain, the strong primary field has to be
compensated in order to be able to measure the
Earth response. Because of drift in the system the
compensation changes in time, and its value has
to be determined successively during the survey
by high-altitude measurements. Furthermore, it is
necessary to perform measurements along tie
lines perpendicular to the flight lines and by postprocessing to provide concordance between
adjacent lines. This process is called levelling, and
because of this a frequency domain system is said
to be relatively calibrated.
When airborne systems are operating in the time
domain, it is possible to reduce the interaction
between the transmitter and the receiver system
to a level, at which the distortion of the
measured off-time signals is negligible. In this
case, a calibration of the instrumentation can be
performed in the laboratory and/or at a testsite
before carrying out the surveys. Neither high
altitude measurements nor performing tie lines
for levelling are then necessary during the survey.
Such a system is said to be absolute calibrated.
The SkyTEM system has these capacities.
The relatively calibrated systems will have a lower
S/N ratio and lower data accuracy because of the
drift and the levelling of datasets compared to
that of absolutely calibrated systems.

Altitude

Special considerations for airborne

electromagnetic measurements

For all EM airborne systems the Earth response

decreases with increasing altitude.

In groundwater exploration, high quality data are

required as the decisive data changes can be as
low as 10 15 %. When operating airborne a

The random noise contribution from natural and

man-made sources show no significant decrease
within the operating altitude range compared to

71

KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

ground based measurements. Therefore, a higher

operating altitude implies a lower S/N ratio at
late-times,
where
the
noise
becomes
predominant, and results in a poorer resolution
of the deeper part of the Earth.
The resolution of the near-surface layers
decreases with increasing altitude because the
induced eddy current system at early-times
becomes larger and more spatial averaged. In
general, increasing altitude means a lower
resolution of upper layers.
Another implication of the decaying Earth
response with altitudes is increased distortions of
the Earth response due to coupling to man-made
installations. As mentioned before, a safety
distance to installations of at least 100 m,
depending on the subsurface structures, has to
be maintained in order to avoid distorted
datasets. Application of airborne electromagnetic
measurements introduces larger safety distances
to installations compared to ground based
equipment, because Earth responses decreases
with increasing altitude, whereas coupling
responses in the operation altitudes maintain
their signal level. The larger the operating altitude
is the larger are the safety distances.

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.

72

The lateral movement while achieving the

required stack size increases with velocity which
implies a decrease in the lateral resolution.
Hence, a higher vertical resolution inevitably
means a decreased lateral resolution if the fight
speed is unchanged. On the contrary, the same
lateral resolution at a higher velocity results in a
decrease of the S/N ratio and hence the vertical
resolution.

Data quality and post-processing

Airborne electromagnetic surveys are very cost
effective. As the data acquisition is extremely
fast, and large amounts of datasets are collected
over a short period of time, the data quality
control has to be automatic.
As discussed before, the application of an
absolutely calibrated TEM system, as the SkyTEM
system,
implies
that
no
high-altitude
measurements have to be carried out during the
survey and subsequently used for compensating
the datasets for the effects from transmitterreceiver interactions. Nor is it necessary to
perform levelling of the datasets.
In order to maintain the high data quality
demanded for groundwater surveys, the
geometrical setup of the equipment has to be
well determined at all times, as well as the
transmitted current waveform. The geometrical
setup is determined by the altitude and the
inclination of the transmitter and receiver coils.
Furthermore, it is essential that the calibration
and the functionality of the instruments are well
documented, and that all setup parameters are
saved for the subsequent interpretation.
The post-processing of the measured datasets
relates to two tasks. The first task is to process
the altitude, inclination and position data in order
to remove outliers and to provide continuity.
Especially the altitude data need processing as
they are, in many cases, affected by the
vegetation on the surface. If the altimeter
reflections from vegetation are not identified and
corrected, errors will be introduced in the
interpreted models. Figure 4.4.6 shows a section
of altimeter data from the SkyTEM system. The
dots are reflections as picked up by one of the
laser altimeters mounted on the transmitter

4.4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

frame. The solid line is the processed altimeter

data. The effects of the erroneous reflections
obtained over the forest are removed in the
processed altitude curve. Data from the
processed altimeter data are used in the
interpretation of the datasets.

Fig. 4.4.6: Processing of altitude data. Dots are the

actual reflections picked up by a laser altimeter. The
solid line is the processed height data. Over the
forest a large number of reflections come from the
tree-tops.

The measured inclination of the frame is used

both to correct the altitudes and the datasets.
Altitudes are measured assuming that the laser
beam is normal to the ground surface. When the
laser tilts, the normal altitude has to be
calculated. The data compensation arises because
it is assumed that the transmitter and the receiver
are z-directed. This is not true when the frame is
tilted.
The second task is related to the distorting of the
datasets by the coupling responses from manmade installations. This is a very time consuming
process when operating in culturally developed
countryside and involves a significant part of the
post-processing time. However, the removal of
coupling-distorted datasets is crucial for the
quality of the interpreted datasets.
Figure 4.4.7 is an example from a SkyTEM survey
where the survey line crosses two couplings
associated with roads. The data marked with grey
in Figure 4.4.7a are coupled, and like the
sounding curve in Figure 4.4.7c they can not be
used for interpretation. The uncoupled data in
Figure 4.4.7b have a smooth appearance in the
whole time range until they reach the noise level
for the last couple of gates.

Fig. 4.4.7: Coupled datasets. Panel a) is a plot of

selected time gates along a profile from a SkyTEM
survey. Data are normalized with the transmitter
moment. Datasets marked with grey are identified
as coupled whereas black data are uncoupled. The
coupled datasets are associated with the crossing of
two roads. Plot b) shows a coupled dataset, and for
comparison an uncoupled dataset is shown in c).
Profile and position of selected soundings are
shown on the inserted map in d). The coupled
sounding is marked with a circle, the uncoupled
sounding with a square. The thick solid line marks
the profile section shown in a).

4.4.9 The SkyTEM system

The SkyTEM system has been developed for
groundwater investigations by the HGG group at
the University of Aarhus, Denmark. During the
last 4 years, the system has been intensively used
for groundwater surveys. A key issue for the
system development was that the measured
datasets present the same quality as those from
the groundbased TEM systems.
The transmitter and receiver coils, power
supplies, laser altimeters, inclinometers, global
positioning system (GPS), electronics, and data
logger are carried as a sling load on the cargo
hook of the helicopter. SkyTEM in operation is
pictured in Figure 4.4.8.

73

KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

hour (5.5 11.0 m/s) providing a high-moment

stack size of approximately 1000 transients. This
is sufficient to obtain time gates out to 2 6
milliseconds. Consequently high- and lowmoment dataset segments yield an average
lateral spacing of 30 50 m. A compromise
between vertical resolution and safety concerns
for the helicopter operation is to maintain an
altitude of 15 20 m for the carrier frame and
about 50 m for the helicopter. In forest areas, the
flying altitude increases with the height of the
trees.
The SkyTEM system is absolutely calibrated at the
national test site in Denmark before used in
surveys. Occasionally the systems are brought to
the site to ensure that the equipment is operating
correctly.

Fig. 4.4.8:

As part of the standard field procedure for data

quality check, repeated datasets are measured at
a local testsite every time the helicopter refuels
and gets fresh batteries, at about 1.5 3 hour
intervals. The repeated measurements when
corrected for the geometrical parameters
(altitude, inclination etc.) are expected, generally,
to be within 5%.

The SkyTEM system in operation

The array is located using two GPS position

devices. Altitude is measured using two laser
altimeters mounted on the carrier frame, as well
as inclinometers measuring the inclination of the
carrier frame in both the x and the y directions.
The measured datasets are averaged, reduced to
data subsets (soundings) and stored together
with GPS coordinates, altitude and inclination of
the transmitter/receiver coils and transmitter
waveform. Transmitter waveform information
and other controlling parameters of the
acquisition process are recorded for each data
subset, thereby ensuring high data-quality
control.
2

The transmitter loop is a four-turn 300 500 m

loop divided into segments to allowing
transmittance of a low and a high moment. The
transmitter loop is attached to the rigid Kevlar
reinforced epoxy/wood composite lattice frame.
The receiver coil is located on top of the rudder,
1.5 m above the corner of the transmitter loop as
shown in Figure 4.4.8.
The operational flying speed of the SkyTEM
system in groundwater surveys is 20 40 km per

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Processing of SkyTEM data

Navigation and status data for the SkyTEM
system make up a substantial amount of data.
The basis for the processing is the following:

GPS data are measured every second with

two independent devices.

The inclination of the frame is measured

every second by two independent devices.

The altitude of the frame is measured 20

times per second with two laser devices.

The transmitter current is stored for every 50

100 transients. The transmitter also
monitors parameters like battery voltage and
temperature.

Every transient is stored and saved for further

processing.

4.4 The transient electromagnetic method (TEM)

Processing of GPS and inclination data is done by

adaptive filtering of the datasets. The inclination
data are used to calculate normal reflection
altimeter data and for calculation of exact
transmitter and receiver altitudes and a field
correction factor. The field correction factor
accounts for the reduction in the z-directed
magnetic moment caused by the movements of
the transmitter/receiver-plane when flown in the
wind. The inclination from horizontal is normally
between 0 and 15 degrees.
Processing of the altitude data is more critical and
has to be evaluated by the user. A precise
determination of the altitude is crucial to obtain
the required resolution of the upper
approximately 30 m of the subsurface. The main
problem is that the lasers receive reflections from
the canopies and not the forest floor when the
system flows over both hard-wood and softwood forests. This is seen as abrupt drops in the
altitude measurements. An adaptive filtering
scheme has been designed to eliminate the
unwanted reflections, but also this scheme fails
when forest-floor reflections are absent in tens of
seconds. In this case, the user has either to draw
an altitude line on a profile plot of the altitude
data or, if impossible, to mark the altitude as a
free parameter in the inversion.
The processing of the transient datasets is done
in two steps. The first step uses adaptive filters to
eliminate noise. The stack size after step one is
approximately 100 200 transients. At this stage,

all datasets that are coupled due to man-made

installations are removed. This process is quite
time consuming and requires a close integration
of gate profile plot, individual dataset plots and a
GIS-map.
In step two, the datasets from step one are
averaged into dataset sequences. The dataset
sequences are the final soundings used in the
inversion. A final sounding consists of about 600
800 SkyTEM transients yielding time gates from
12 s to 2 to 6 ms. The soundings are on the
average separated 30 50 m on the flight line.

Inversion of SkyTEM data

A sounding consists of a low and a high-moment
segment. As the two segments are spatially
separated, the dataset sequences are inverted
with different altitudes. The flying altitude is
included as an inversion parameter with a prior
value and a standard deviation determined from
the altimeters. All dataset sequences along the
profile lines are inverted in one step using soft
bands on the model parameters. This approach
allows for smooth transitions along the profile
line resembling the actual changes in geology.
SkyTEM was operated in a number of pilot areas
of the BurVal project. Examples are shown, e.g.,
in Chapter 5.4 Ellerbeker Rinne.

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KURT I. SRENSEN, ANDERS VEST CHRISTIANSEN & ESBEN AUKEN

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