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Sharpening the response of some amplitude-balancing potential field filters

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Abstract

There are many different filters for potential field data which incorporate automatic gain control features. These filters are commonly used to enhance the edges or ridges/valleys of anomalies irrespective of their amplitude. Although the amplitude-balancing effect produced by these filters can be quite effective, it can result in the shape of anomalies becoming more diffuse. Applying the filters to the vertical derivative of the data will solve this problem but not without introducing noise issues. An alternative approach is to raise the filter to a power, which produces improved results without the noise problems. The method is demonstrated on magnetic data from Southern Africa.

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Acknowledgments

The Council for Geoscience, Pretoria, is thankful for the permission to use the aeromagnetic data shown in Fig. 8. The reviewers and editors are thankful for their constructive comments which improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Gordon Robert John Cooper

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  1. Gordon Robert John Cooper
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Correspondence to Gordon Robert John Cooper.

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Responsible editor: Hesham El-Araby

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Cooper, G.R.J. Sharpening the response of some amplitude-balancing potential field filters. Arab J Geosci 13, 64 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-5042-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-019-5042-4

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