Inversion of multi-configuration complex EMI data with Minimum Gradient Support regularization

Authors:
  • GDGian Piero Deidda
    Gian Piero Deidda
  • PAPatricia Diaz de Alba
    Patricia Diaz de Alba
  • GRGiuseppe Rodriguez
    Giuseppe Rodriguez
  • GVGiulio Vignoli
    Giulio Vignoli
Preprint
Publisher website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Frequency-domain electromagnetic instruments allow, also because of their handy sizes, the collection of data in different configuration, i.e. varying the inter-coil spacing, the frequency, and the height above the ground. This makes these tools very practical for the characterization of the near surface in many fields of applications (e.g., precision agriculture, pollution assessments, shallow geological investigations). To this end, the inversion of either the in-phase or the quadrature component of the signal has been already studied. Furthermore, in some occasion not enough attention is paid to the a priori information available on the solution, and a smoothness condition is blindly imposed to regularization techniques, regardless of the solution properties. The present work discusses an algorithm for the inversion of the complex signal in its entirety, as well as a regularization method promoting the sparsity of the reconstructed electrical conductivity distribution. This regularization strategy incorporates a minimum gradient support stabilizer into a truncated generalized singular value decomposition scheme. The results of the implementation of this sparse regularization at each step of a damped Gauss-Newton inversion algorithm (based on a nonlinear forward model) are compared against the associated solutions obtained via a, more standard, smooth stabilizer. Moreover, we also study the depth of investigation (DOI) in order to provide an estimation of the maximun depth that can be investigated. The effectiveness and limitations of the whole inversion algorithm are demonstrated on synthetic datasets.

This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit: