Aeromagneticdataprocessingusing MATLAB
Aeromagneticdataprocessingusing MATLAB
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View the article online for updates and enhancements. - A dual estimate method for aeromagnetic
compensation
Ming Ma, Zhijian Zhou and Defu Cheng
residual magnetic intensity plot shows the magnetic field range between -200 nT for magnetic low and 200
nT for magnetic high.However, the use of MATLAB is not to displace Oasis Montaj geosoftware but to
give more scientific meaning to the automation of the filtering techniques used in Oasis.
Keywords: Aeromagnetic data, MATLAB, Interpolation, Oasis Montaj, Cubic, Piecewise.
1. Introduction
For more than three hundred years, it has been recognised that the Earth behaves like a strong
magnet [1]. Thismakes the earth magnetic field method the oldest geophysical method among
other geophysical methods. A wide range of applications is acquired from the measurement of
the earth’s field. The magnetic method is commonly used to detect and map subsurface
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
geological structures to give information on depth, magnetic susceptibility, lateral extension, size
and thickness of the source body [2] and [3]. It is also used to detect magnetic anomalies due to
variation in the subsurface magnetic field, as all earth materials possess magnetic properties.
Measurement of the variation of the earth’s magnetic field created by lateral and vertical
variations in crust magnetization has been recorded after Earth's main core field has been
subtracted from the total magnetic field [1]. Magnetic measurement can be acquired either
through air, sea or spaceborne.Airborne magnetic method is referred to as theaeromagnetic
method. The aeromagnetic method has been commonly used for various investigations such as
geological analysis and mineral exploration [4].
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
unravelling the understanding behind some of the filtering techniques used in Oasis Montaj, this
study focuses on aeromagnetic data processing with MATLAB to interpret magnetic field for
better insight into the mathematical and physics concepts behind the data manipulations, filtering
and processing procedure.The specific objectives are evaluation of magnetic field variation of
the data in a two-dimensional plot in form of a contour map by carrying out interpolation on the
data;mapping magnetic perturbation of magnetic fields along the flight line using MATLAB
code and delineation of magnetic field trends on the data to pin point areas of magnetic highs and
lows.
Oasis Montaj geosoftware play an important role in the interpretation (either qualitative or
quantitative interpretation) and analysis of aeromagnetic data [8]. The incorporation of various
filtering techniques such as reduction-to-pole (RTP), vertical and horizontal derivatives, tilt
derivatives, analytic signal and Euler deconvolution among others during analysis is necessary
for both data enhancement and noise suppression [2] and [8]. One of the most paramount issues
with the use of Oasis Montaj is to understand the basic principles behind each automated ready-
made filtering techniques available on the software before analysis, to have some hands-on
experience and in-depth knowledge on how the filtering process takes place. To prevent poor
analysis with minimal noise ratio that can lead to misleading results,another sophisticated tool
that has the capacity to unravel the scientific concept behind the step-by-step filtering techniques
is required. Thus, analysing these data on MATLAB with the goal to understand the basic
mathematical/physics concepts behind these filtering techniques is desirable. However, previous
aeromagnetic interpretation without proper knowledge on proper data treatment might lead to
wrong data interpretation and might even lead to interpretation of noise signal as geological
features. Thus, analysing aeromagnetic data using MATLAB will increase the physical
understanding behind the automated filtering analysis in the Oasis Montaj geosoftware. This
research aims at filtering processing of aeromagnetic data using MATLAB.
2. Method
Interpolation was used as a technique to estimate the value of a query point within the domain of
a set of sample data points [6]. A sample data set was interpolated to generate a function as in
Equation (1) specified by point X and corresponding values of V.
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5th International Conference on Science and Sustainable Development (ICSSD 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
V F X (1)
This function can then be used to evaluate a query point 𝑋𝑞, to give
Vq F X q (2)
A unique value of V q was generated for every query X q within the domain of X. The interesting
aspect of using interpolation function is that it cut across all the data points. This is a significant
difference between interpolation method and curve or surface fitting. In surface fitting, the
function does not necessarily pass through the sample data points. After the coordinates points
x0 , y0 and x1 , y1 are determined then the straight line between these points was refer to as
linear interpolation (Figure 1). The linear interpolation involves the use of linear polynomials to
generate new data points within a discrete range of existing data points. Solving the equation for
y from the equation of slope of a straight line to give:
y1 y 0 y 0 x1 x y1 x x0
y y 0 x x0 (3)
x1 x0 x1 x0
Equation (3) is referred to as linear interpolation of x0 x1 interval. The nearest neighbour
algorithm chooses the nearest point value and does not make use of the neighbouring point
values, resulting into a piecewise interpolant. For the cubic interpolation, polynomial
interpolation of third degree was used. If the values of a function f x and its derivatives are
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
known at x 0 and x 1 , then the function can be interpolated on the interval [0, 1] using a third
degree polynomial.
f xdx
(4)
F k f xe
ikx
dx (5)
Equation (5) is the Fourier transform of equation (4), where i 1 and k is wave number
2
which is inversely proportional to wavelength from the equation k . Equation (6) gives
the inverse operator of the Fourier transform:
f x f k e
1 ikx
dk (6)
2
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
where k x is the wave number in x and k y is also wave number but in y direction.
Aeromagnetic data at sub-nanotesla resolution scale was collected from the Nigeria Geological
Survey Agency (NGSA). The high resolution aeromagnetic data were acquired by Patterson
Grant and Watson (PGW) and Fugro Airborne Survey Services, Canada, between the year 2003
and 2009 under the supervision of the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA).
Next was to use MATLAB to mesh the data on a gridded mesh whose limits and
intervalsdepends on𝑡𝑖in ‘meshgrid’ format;
ti = -100000:100:100000; % grid intervals in (m)
[XI,YI] = meshgrid(ti,ti);
%Matlab cubic interpolation mesh grid 'XI,YI' on data 'x,y,z'
ZI = griddata(x,y,z,XI,YI,'cubic');
Interpolation can be divided into two categories, which could either be interpolation of ordered
gridded data or scattered data. These categories depend on the structure of the sampled data. The
sample data may either be dispersed or arranged in an axis-aligned grid. If the sample points are
of gridded distribution, one can effectively locate the sample points in the neighbourhood of the
query by using the ordered gridded structure. On the other hand, the interpolation of scattered
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
data involves a triangulation of data points, which requires higher level of computation. Figure 2
illustrates the interpolated values (in red) placement between nine sample values in black. The
black data spot represents observed data spaced 400 m apart whereas the interpolated values are
represented in red having intra spacing of 100 m apart.
Figure 2: Schematic representation of the field sample data (black) having interpolated values
(red).
The final grid data is now simply denoted as Aeromag (X,Y,Z) formally computed as (XI,YI,ZI).
The data type, description, units, and other descriptive statistics for each variable is summarize in
Table 1 using the MATLAB summaryfunction.
Table 1: Descriptive statistics for aeromagnetic grid data used for analysis
Variables Type X (m) Y (m) Z (nT)
Data Type 611306×1 double 611306×1 double 611306×1 double
Maximum UTM(m) 2.792e+05 8.301e+05 400.79
Minimum UTM(m) 1.685e+05 7.743e+05 -428.08
Difference UTM(m) 1.107e+05 0.558e+05 828.87
Median UTM(m) 2.239e+05 8.021e+05 4.1133
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
2.5 Interpolation
Interpolation technique serves as edge detection and can be used as a smoothening tool on
existing data. There are different alternative interpolation methods such as linear, nearest,
bilinear, next, previous, p-chip, cubic, bicubic, v5cubic, maxima or spline[4]. The MATLAB
algorithm was used with linear, nearest neighbour and piecewise cubic interpolant to determine
the interpolation RMI field distribution from the measured magnetic data.
This interpolation method was used to examine the closest two pixels by drawing a line between
them and then designating a value as the output pixel value along that line.The nearest pixel
value was used to assign the output pixel visualization in nearest-neighbor interpolation. This is
the fastest form for interpolation but the output image contains jagged borders/edges.The cubic
interpolation approximates a sine interpolation, which was approached with the use of cubic
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5th International Conference on Science and Sustainable Development (ICSSD 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
polynomial waveforms rather than linear waveforms while resampling a pixel. This method
examines four neighboring pixels using a one-dimensional (1D) source. The method surveys 16
pixels with a three-dimension (3D). Cubic spline interpolation gives minimal error, thus
preserving the highest amount of fine detail in the resulting image. However, it should be noted
that this interpolation method involves more processing time.
3. Presentation of Results
In this investigation, the distribution interpretation of aeromagnetic survey analysis was critically
presented with the appropriate graphical plots produced from each mathematical filter. This
section showed all results generated during the research analysis, which were represented in
graphical, colorized and contoured plots.
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
On the other hand, Figure 7 shows interpolated aeromagnetic data without outliers. Figure 7 was
produced using multiple lines plot of a section of B=(B.X(60304:81408),B.Y(60304:81408),
B.Z(60304:81408)). Figure 8 shows interpolated aeromagnetic data without outliers with RMI
greater than 0. Multiple lines plot of a horizontal section of
B=(B.X(60304:81408),B.Y(60304:81408) was used for the plot. Figure 9 shows the piecewise
linear interpolate surface from the grid data. A surface was fitted to the data lines set using linear
interpolant as shown in Figure 9 using MATLAB command:
cftool(B.X(60304:81408),B.Y(60304:81408),B.Z(60304:81408)). The linear interpolation RMI
field distribution can be better appreciated with a surface contour map as shown Figures 10, 11
and 12. Figure 10 shows linear interpolant of the RMI with surface contour while Figure 11
shows plot of nearest neighbour interpolant and lastly Figure 12 reveals Piecewise cubic
interpolant contour plot.
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
Figure 5: A single line 2D RMI plot against distance X and Y interpolated aeromagnetic
showing of B=(B.X(60304:61408),B.Y(60304:61408))
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
Figure 9: Surface Piecewise linear interpolation plot showing gridded mesh data.
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
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UTM Y(m) doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
UTM X(m)
4. Discussion of Results
4.1 Residual Magnetic Intensity RMI
The graphical plot in Figure 3 shows the residual magnetic intensity plot against distance. A plot
of the entire two aeromagnetic data sheets is graphically represented in Figure 3. The plot is
clustered with 611,306 data points. The plot appears like a continuous function within a small
area. All data look bunched up like a continuous surface (plain view). It should be noted that the
visual judgment form looking at the orientation of the graph might be tricky. What is seen from
the 3D view is as a result of the perceptive in which the image is viewed. That is the reason why
the strike lines are made adjacent to the dip lines, knowing that the orientation of the lines will
determine the features seen in an anomaly. The magnetic intensity range between -200 nT for
magnetic low and200 nT for magnetic high. The aeromagnetic data vector may contain outlier;
therefore removal of outliers is required and is replaced using interpolation to have a non-
distorted representation plot.
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5th International Conference on Science and Sustainable Development (ICSSD 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
4.2 Interpolation
The interpolating function estimates actually passes through observed data points. The
interpolated aeromagnetic data for a single line plot was generated without an outlier (as shown
in Figure 4) in the (X,Y) horizontal plane. The same data was reproduced in Figure 5, which
shows the magnetic perturbations of the RMI along the flight line B = (B.X(60304:61408),
B.Y(60304:61408)). It can be used to establish a prima facie that magnetic anomaly may exist
prior to more detailed survey. Figure 6 indicates interpolated aeromagnetic RMI without outliers
for multiple lines plot of a section of B=(B.X(60304:81408),B.Y(60304:81408)). The alignment
of the field lines in a plan view as represented in Figure 6 revealed consistency in lines spacing
and data point coverage along all surveyed lines. It also shows the orientation of flight lines. This
serves as guide for interpolation method either to use gridded or scattered data technique which
involves triangulation.
Figure 7 shows multiple lines plot of a section of the aeromagnetic data interpolated. The plot
shows that visual clarity depends on viewing orientation as the features become clustered up
when rotated. One needs to be careful as the orientation of the plots could give a wrong visual
perception in form of clustered images. Figure 8 indicate the interpolated aeromagnetic without
outliers with RMI greater than 0. Figure 9 shows the Piecewise linear interpolate surface from
the grid data. It would be noted that an interpolated surface is superposed on the data lines as
shown in colors. B(X,Y) is the piecewise linear surface computed from p, (where p is the
coefficient structure), X is normalized by mean 2.235e+05 and standard deviation of 3.202e+04
and where Y is normalized by mean 7.809e+05 and standard deviation of 551. The linear
interpolant map was compared with two other methods of interpolation namely; nearest
neighbour and piecewise cubic interpolant. Linear interpolation map (Figure 10) utilizes the
nearest two observed data points to form a line between them and assigning a value along that
line as the output data value. Its result was very identical to that of (Figure 11). The nearest
neighbour interpolation (Figure 11) assigns the value of the nearest data to the data in the output
visualization which is usually fastest interpolation method among the three methods employed
except that the resulting image may contain jagged edges. The cubic convolution interpolation
contour plot (Figure 12), as with the 3D source uses 16 neighbouring data set for interpolation
which results in the least amount of error, thereby preserving the highest amount of fine detail in
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5th International Conference on Science and Sustainable Development (ICSSD 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
the output map (Figure 12). Figure 12 shows finer precision with higher details usually at the
edges when compared to Figure 11. The differences observed can be explained using the yellow
colour band in the three respective (Figures 10; 11 and 12) maps. However, cubic interpolation
required more processing time.
5. Conclusion
The graphics of the entire data plots using MATLAB tends to cluster with large data and for that
reason, we have only considered about 10% of the entire data. This limitation makes MATLAB a
lesser tool for professional aeromagnetic processing. Results show that the survey lines are
parallel to the x-axis and adjacent to the undulating RMI field pattern which helps to see clearly
if there are structures. The aeromagnetic survey data line spacing of 400 m was interpolated
using a grid spacing of 100 m creating a surface map passing through the points. The magnetic
intensity of the RMI plot range between -200 nT for magnetic low and 200 nT for magnetic high.
From the piecewise linear surface B(X,Y), where X is normalized by mean 2.235e+05 and
standard deviation of 3.202e+04 and where Y is normalized by mean 7.809e+05 and standard
deviation of 551. A comparison of the surface maps was made using three interpolation methods.
From the results, it was shown that the piecewise cubic interpolant contour plot shows finer
precision with higher details usually at the edges.
The interpretation of the magnetic anomalies is complicated and heavily depends on the
mathematical processes used. For example, the dipolar nature of magnetic field, the
superposition of multiple magnetic sources and the presence of geological and culturally induced
noise signals from pipe lines, power linesor railroads, can complicate the preprocessed data. This
research successfully describes the use of MATLAB program for interpretation of aeromagnetic
data. The major phase of the program used is filtering by interpolation. However, the use of
MATLAB is not to displace Oasis geosoftware but to give more scientific meaning to the
automation of the filtering techniques used in Oasis. The use of handy mathematical software
tools such as MATLAB to perform the data processing task would help armature geophysicist
and geologist to appreciate the signatures of processing methods on the geophysical
interpretation of subsurface features.
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IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 993 (2022) 012017 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/993/1/012017
Acknowledgment
This is to appreciate Covenant University Centre for Research Innovation and Discovery
(CUCRID) and Covenant University as a whole for their financial support towards this study.
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