Two-dimensional magnetotelluric data inversion using Lanczos bidiagonalization method with active constraint balancing

Araghi, Faegheh Mina; Meshinchi-Asl, Mirsattar; Kalateh, Ali Nejati; Mirzaei, Mahmoud

doi:10.1007/s11200-020-0150-x

Published: 13 April 2021

Two-dimensional magnetotelluric data inversion using Lanczos bidiagonalization method with active constraint balancing

Faegheh Mina Araghi¹,
Mirsattar Meshinchi-Asl¹,
Ali Nejati Kalateh² &
Mahmoud Mirzaei³

Studia Geophysica et Geodaetica volume 65, pages 184–205 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The magnetotelluric (MT) technique is an electromagnetic geophysical method, which is widely used as a complementary to seismic surveys for exploration of hydrocarbon reservoirs. In the inversion process, the method of matrix inverse calculation has a considerable effect on the speed of the inversion and the quality of obtained models. Lanczos Bidiagonalization (LB) method has been reported to be a fast and efficient approach for solving the inversion problems. In this study, we employ LB method for inverting large-scale 2D MT data. In LB algorithm, the full set of equations is replaced by a dimensionally reduced system of equations. As a result, the speed of the solution procedure is increased, while the original problem is solved with a high accuracy. In addition, we employ active constraint balancing approach for determining the optimum regularization parameter. The advantage of the method is that for highly resolvable parameters, a small value of the Lagrangian multiplier is assigned, and vice versa. The results of the synthetic data inversion show that both methods require equal computer memory but LB method is faster and more reliable than conjugate gradient method. The proposed approach is also applied to inverse real MT data collected from the Kashan area. The Kashan area is the most interesting area for oil and gas exploration of the Central Iran Basin. The inversion results obtained by LB are in a good agreement with the geological structure of the study area and the drilling data.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the National Iranian Oil Company for providing us with the field MT data. In addition, we are honored to thank particularly Dr. Seong Kon Lee for his kind scientific collaborations and suggestions and also Dr. Tavakoli for his help with English edits.

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Authors and Affiliations

Department of Earth Sciences, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Faegheh Mina Araghi & Mirsattar Meshinchi-Asl
Faculty of Mining, Petroleum and Geophysics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
Ali Nejati Kalateh
Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Arak University, Arak, Iran
Mahmoud Mirzaei

Authors

Faegheh Mina Araghi
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Mirsattar Meshinchi-Asl
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Ali Nejati Kalateh
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Mahmoud Mirzaei
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Correspondence to Mirsattar Meshinchi-Asl.

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Araghi, F.M., Meshinchi-Asl, M., Kalateh, A.N. et al. Two-dimensional magnetotelluric data inversion using Lanczos bidiagonalization method with active constraint balancing. Stud Geophys Geod 65, 184–205 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11200-020-0150-x

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Received: 03 May 2020
Revised: 17 July 2020
Accepted: 12 January 2021
Published: 13 April 2021
Issue Date: April 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11200-020-0150-x

Keywords

MT
Lanczos bidiagonalization
conjugate gradient
ACB
regularization
optimization