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Performance Evaluation of Amplitude- and Phase-Based Methods for Estimating Edges of Potential Field Sources

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Abstract

Edges of potential field sources often denote geologic features and are therefore a problem of fundamental importance in geological interpretation. There are many different methods for locating the source edges, most of which are based on the derivatives of the potential field data. In general, these methods can be divided into two main groups, namely amplitude-based methods and phase-based methods. This study compares the performance of popular amplitude- and phase-based edge detection methods such as total horizontal gradient, analytic signal (also called total gradient), enhanced analytic signal, directional analytic signal, tilt derivative, theta map, horizontal tilt angle, hyperbolic tilt angle, and enhanced total horizontal gradient. The methods are tested on synthetic magnetic data, as well as synthetic gravity data with and without noise. Furthermore, the methods are also applied to real magnetic and gravity data sets from northeast Vietnam as practical examples. The results show that the enhanced total horizontal gradient performs better than other methods under almost all scenarios.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geophysics, Faculty of Physics, University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam

    Luan Thanh Pham, Minh Duc Vu & Sang Thi Le

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  1. Luan Thanh Pham
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  2. Minh Duc Vu
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  3. Sang Thi Le
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Correspondence to Luan Thanh Pham.

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Pham, L.T., Vu, M.D. & Thi Le, S. Performance Evaluation of Amplitude- and Phase-Based Methods for Estimating Edges of Potential Field Sources. Iran J Sci Technol Trans Sci 45, 1327–1339 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40995-021-01122-3

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