Hybrid Monte Carlo 1-D joint inversion of LOTEM and MT

• Published in: Journal of applied geophysics 2021-11, Vol.194, p.104424, Article 104424
• Main Authors: Carter, Simon, Xie, Xingbing, Zhou, Lei, Yan, Liangjun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bayesian; Hamiltonian; HMC; Joint-inversion; LOTEM; Magnetotelluric
• ISSN: 0926-9851; 1879-1859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2021.104424

In this paper two different geophysical electro-magnetic techniques, long-offset time domain EM and the magnetotelluric method, are jointly inverted using a variation of Bayesian inversion called Hybrid Monte-Carlo. Long-offset time domain EM is a method that records Earth response to a controlled source square wave signal, while the magnetotelluric method records Earth response to naturally occurring electro-magnetic signals. We obtain better understanding of subsurface resistivity structures because the information they provide is complementary and joint inversion reduces the set of permissible inversion models. In most situations where long-offset time domain EM is recorded magnetotelluric data is also collected, since receiver instrumentation is shared. Hybrid Monte Carlo uses the gradient of the forward model to enable larger jumps through the solution space than are permissible using the standard Metropolis-Hastings algorithm, avoiding the pitfall of random walk behavior and giving faster convergence. The method is successfully applied to a survey area near the edge of Wuhan China. We obtain inversion results in a highly urbanized area, where the magnetotelluric method is typically compromised by background electro-magnetic noise. •HMC reduces random walks and gives faster convergence.•The joint-inversion of MT and LOTEM combines complimentary EM responses.•Problems with difficult combinations of conductors and resistor would benefit.•This is the first joint inversion of EM data using HMC.