GeoExplo

Ltda.
Santiago Chile

Airborne Geophysical Survey

General -- Airborne Magnetic
Surveys

General Introduction to Airborne Magnetic

Surveys
Abstract
This article deals with general
issues of airborne geophysical
surveys with special emphasis on
aerial magnetic surveys. Under
the airborne magnetometer
surveys section we discus: Basic
Principles, Instrumentation,
Magnetometers (uxgate, proton
precession and optically pumped
magnetometers), Survey
Operations, Contract
Specications, Survey Design
and Noise.

Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Survey Costs
2. AIRBORNE MAGNETOMETER SURVEYS
2.1 Basic Principles
2.2 Instrumentation
a) The Fluxgate Magnetometer
b) The Proton Precession Magnetometer
c) Optically Pumped Magnetometers.
(Alkali or He vapor)
2.3 Survey Operations
a) Table 2.3-1 Contract Specications
Survey Design
b) Noise
2.4 Magnetic Gradiometer Surveys

1. Introduction
During the past fty years a very large number of both ground and airborne
geophysical techniques have been developed to assist in mineral and
hydrocarbon exploration. Airborne methods are usually the most cost eective
tools available for both large regional reconnaissance surveys used as aids in
geological mapping and for locating target areas for more detailed follow-up
using helicopter borne instruments. Ground techniques are usually most
eective when used to test targets discovered by the airborne surveys. In this
workshop we will limit our discussion to airborne methods and only mention
ground techniques in passing. We will concentrate on four of the most common
types of aerial surveys:
Total magnetic intensity surveys;
Vertical magnetic gradiometry surveys;
Helicopter borne frequency domain electromagnetic surveys or HEM
surveys;
Radiometric surveys.

We will also briey introduce the very low frequency electromagnetic method or
VLF. We will open with a brief discussion of the types of surveys relevant to the
method and the types of exploration problems the method is normally used to
solve before we discuss the basic principles of each method. Next we'll turn to
survey design considerations and eld practice, including instrumentation, eld
data processing and data quality control. Then we'll discuss nal data
compilation, and map and other data products. Finally, we'll briey introduce
some of the interpretation tools available for in-depth analysis of specic areas,
particularly if geological, or other data is available for correlation with the
geophysical data.
While we will be discussing these various methods separately, it is important to
realize that geophysical techniques are most eective when two or more
dierent types of data are collected during a single survey. For example, HEM
and magnetic data are usually collected at the same time. It is also useful to
include magnetic total eld and vertical magnetic gradient, and perhaps VLF,
instrumentation when conducting a radiometric survey.
Because aeromagnetic surveys are probably the most common type of airborne
geophysical surveys, we will use this survey type as the vehicle for a discussion
of eld practice and many other elements of airborne geophysical surveying.
However, many of the practices discussed for airborne magnetic surveys also
apply to all other types of airborne surveying.

1.1 Survey Costs

It is dicult to predict the exact cost of conducting airborne surveys. Parameters
that will inuence the cost include:
survey type
number of parameters measured
number of delivery products required
type of platform required (helicopter or xed wing)
measurement and navigation tolerances acceptable
time of the survey
location
current fuel costs
ferry time required
other required products - e.g. interpretation products
survey size.
However, for rough comparison, an airborne survey will usually cost somewhere
between US$10.00/km. to US$120.00/km. compared with the cost of conducting
a deep reection seismic survey which can be as much as US$1000.00/km. Other
ground surveys will fall somewhere between these extremes. Of course, the
geophysical information yielded by the airborne and ground surveys is very
dierent, this is reasons choosing one over the other.

2. Airborne Magnetometer Surveys

Aeromagnetic surveying is probably the most common airborne survey type
conducted for both mineral and hydrocarbon exploration. Because total
magnetic intensity and vertical magnetic gradient surveys are intimately related
(total intensity data is always collected simultaneously with vertical gradient
data) we will discuss both methods in this section, The type of aeromagnetic
survey specications, instrumentation, and interpretation procedures, will
depend on the objective of the survey. Generally, we divide aeromagnetic surveys
into two classes: regional and detailed surveys.
Regional surveys usually have a relatively wide traverse line spacing, 500
meters or more, and cover an area of at least 5,000 square kilometers. This class
of survey is usually done for one of the following purposes:
1. Geological Mapping to aid in mapping lithology and structure in both hard
rock environments and for mapping basement lithology and structure in
sedimentary basins or for regional tectonic studies.
2. Depth To Basement mapping for applications to petroleum, coal and other
non metallic exploration in sedimentary basins or mineralization associated
with the basement surface such as strata bound Pb-Zn deposits or
U-bearing basal pebble conglomerates.
Detailed surveys have a line spacing of less that 500 meters and are done for a
variety of reasons, usually in conjunction with other airborne methods. Reasons
for conducting a detailed survey include:
1. Direct prospecting for magnetic ores like magnetic iron ores, crome,
asbestos-bearing ultramac rocks, or kimberlites.
2. Indirect prospecting, in combination with other methods or alone to:
Discriminate between metallic and non-metallic conductors.
Assist in interpreting body geometry and depth
Determine the geologic environment of the source.
Locate specic "basement targets" for investigation using seismic
methods in deep hydrocarbon exploration.
Dene the "regional" eld for gravity interpretation in sedimentary
basins.
Map weak magnetic lineations related to faulting within the
sedimentary section in some hydrocarbon plays.

2.1 Basic Principles

Magnetometer surveys map local disturbances in the earth's magnetic eld that
are caused by magnetic minerals in the upper regions of the earth's crust. If no
magnetic minerals were present in the crust the earth's magnetic eld would be
very smooth because it originates within the earth's core and therefore comes
from a very great depth. This very broad, smooth magnetic eld, the
"geomagnetic eld", is present in all survey data even though it usually cannot
be perceived within the limited areas involved in contour maps of magnetically
active regions like shield or many mountainous environments. It is a slow but
steady change in the background levels of the measurements, generally rising as
one moves northward or southward from the magnetic equator.

Fortunately, it can be removed from the data by a very simple mathematical

procedure called, a spherical harmonic expansion, based on magnetic
observations made at magnetic observatories around the world. The model that
is used for doing this is called the "International Geomagnetic Reference Field"
or IGRF, and its value is easily calculated at any given geographical position.
From the core of the earth to a depth below the surface where the temperature
reaches a value of about 500 degrees C., the "Currie point", there are no
additional contributions to the magnetic eld. Above the "Currie point", which
occurs at depths of between 5 and 15 km., some minerals acquire magnetic
properties and, therefore, cause local disturbances, called magnetic anomalies,
in the geomagnetic eld. These minerals are a small number of oxides of Fe and
Ti, and one of the family of pyrrhotites.
The most strongly magnetic and the most common magnetic mineral is
magnetite. Others include maghemite, the titanomagnetites, and the
titanomaghemites. Pyrrhotite is comparatively scarce compared with these ; and
so, for practical purposes, magnetic contour maps can be viewed as giving
information only on the distribution of magnetic iron oxides (chiey magnetite)
in the rocks that lie above the Currie point.
The intensity of magnetization, I, of a rock or mineral is measured in nano
Teslas, nT, and is due chiey to two factors as shown in equation 1:
I = K*f + R

................................. equation 1.

where:
K = the magnetic susceptibility of the material, which is largely
determined by the magnetite content of the rock.
f = the local strength of the earth's eld
and R = the remnant magnetic eld of the rock, which is the magnetic
component that was "frozen" into the rock by virtue of the
ambient magnetic eld at the time that it cooled to the Currie
point or later while ferromagnetic grains were growing or
undergoing chemical change. Remnant magnetization can also
occur during hydrodeposition of very small, previously
magnetized particles.
The rst term in equation 1 is the "Induced" magnetic eld, or the magnetization
a rock obtains, by virtue of its susceptibility, through the applied eld. It
disappears when the rock is removed from the magnetic eld.
The intensity of magnetization, however, is not xed with respect to time and
space. In aeromagnetic surveys we are usually interested in the spatial
variations of the intensity of magnetization and, thus, the temporal variations
must be identied and removed during data compilation. Three main types of
temporal variations have been found to cause spurious errors in aeromagnetic
data as follows:

1. Diurnal (24 hour variation):

This variation usually has an amplitude of about 50 nT to 100
nT and is caused by large scale ionosphereic motions. It is
removed by monitoring the eld using a base station
magnetometer or using a network leveling program.
2. Magnetic Storms:
These are abrupt variations of several hundred nT and last
for several hours. Because they follow cosmic ray activity
they are probably related to solar activity. In many cases data
collection must stop during a sever storm, hence the
importance of using a base station.
3. Micropulsations
These are very short period, 0.01 sec. to 10 sec. random
variations having variable amplitude from about 0.001 nT to
10 nT. There are probably a variety of causes for
micropulsations, including atmospheric electromagnetic
activity. Micropulsations can be important in high sensitivity
surveys.
An appreciation of the possible severity of the eect of temporal variations,
sometimes referred to collectively as "diurnal" variations, can be gained from
gure 2.1-1 which shows a comparison between shipboard magnetic variations
and base station variation at a high magnetic latitude. Note that some of the
"diurnal" uctuations are as high as 500 nT. Because the ship travels much
slower than an aircraft, it collects data over a much longer time period and so
longer wavelength temporal variations are more evident in marine data than in
airborne data.

Figure 2.1-1: A comparison between base station magnetic variations and

ship-borne variations

Typically a survey contractor will record the diurnal variations in a base station
that is time synchronized with the mobile data acquisition system (usually using
the GPS clock). The temporal variations recorded in the base station are them
removed from the data collected in the mobile in post survey processing. If the
diurnal variations are extreme (there are rules for this which will be dened in
the "re-ight" specications of the survey contract) then the data collected on
the survey platform will need to be re-recorded.

2.2 Instrumentation
The magnetic eld is measured by sampling the total eld, or a component of the
eld, at either discrete times (usually at intervals of from .1 sec. to 1 sec), or by
recording the eld continuously along the ight lines. While there are at least
ve dierent types of magnetometers that are used to collect various types of
geophysical data: the Fluxgate, Proton Precession, Optically Pumped,
Overhauser, and Squid, (superconducting quantum interference device) only the
rst three are in common use for aeromagnetic data collection. Thus we will only
describe the operation of the three most common types.

a) The Fluxgate Magnetometer

The uxgate magnetometer is based on the properties of the magnetization
curves of a highly magnetically permeable material. Two bars of this material are
oriented such that, in the absence of a magnetic eld, the magnetization curves
of the two bars are equal but opposite. In the presence of a magnetic eld, the
magnetization of the two bars is dierent and the dierence is measured as a
voltage in an output coil.
This type of magnetometer has an accuracy of from 0.1 to 2 nT and produces a
continuous analogue output prole that, in modern instruments, is digitized for
processing. It records either the total magnetic intensity or one of its three
vector components and has a wide dynamic range.
A three axis uxgate magnetometer typicaly is included in all airborne survey
systems to support data correction for magnetic interference from the aircraft or
other sources. It three axis uxgate magnetometer records the orientation of the
aircraft in the earth's main magnetic eld and this information is used to correct
the main magnetic measurments for the orientation eects of the aircraft in a
process called "magnetic compensation" correction.

b) The Proton Precession Magnetometer

The proton precession magnetometer is based on a property of the atomic
nucleus. If the electrons spinning about the nucleus are deected from the
direction of the earth's eld the distorted spin axis will precess back to the
direction of the earth's eld. The precession frequency, called the Larmor
frequency, is related to the magnitude of the magnetic eld by:

f = A*F

................................. equation 2.

where:
f = the Larmor frequency,
A = the atomic constant for the element processing,
F = magnetic eld strength, in geophysics, the earth's total eld.
The sensor consists simply of a bottle of material containing hydrogen nuclei,
such as water or a hydrocarbon, with a coil of wire, the induction coil wound
around the bottle. A cyclical microvolt signal is generated in the coil whose
frequency, the Larmor frequency, can be measured. For accurate total eld
measurements (0.1 nT to 1 nT) the frequency must be measured to 1 part in
100,000 to 1,000,000. Because of the necessity to continually deect the
electronic spin vectors, the measurements are not continuous. This type of
magnetometer has an accuracy of from 0.1 to 1 nT, and produces an intermittent
(digital) sample in intervals of from 0.5 sec. to 1 sec. It records the total
magnetic intensity and has a limited dynamic range.

c) Optically Pumped Magnetometers. (Alkali or

He vapor)
The optically pumped magnetometer also depends on the precession property of
the atomic nucleus. In this case the sensors bottle contains helium or an alkali
vapor. The atoms of the vapor are illuminated by polarized light of a lamp that
contains the same vapor as the bottle, and the intensity of the light transmitted
through the vapor is recorded by a photo cell. This illumination excites the
valence electron of each vapor atom to a higher energy level and the vapor
becomes transparent to the light. An external magnetic eld also changes the
energy level of the atoms. If an alternating magnetic eld at the Larmor
frequency is applied to the vapor at right angles to the earth's eld the atoms
energy levels are returned to the lower level where the vapor becomes opaque to
the light. A feedback loop between the photo cell and the coil can be established
such that the system oscillates at the Larmor frequency and so changes
frequency as the intensity of the magnetic eld changes.
A schematic diagram of a typical optically pumped magnetometer is shown in
gure 2.2-1, (Hood, Peter, 1969)

Figure 2.2-1: Self-oscillating alkali-vapor magnetometer

The instrument will not operate when the ambient magnetic eld is either
parallel to, or normal to, the optical axis of the gas cell. This requires that the
orientation of the sensor be changed, particularly at low latitudes and when
crossing the equator.
Because of this instruments high accuracy, reasonably wide dynamic range, and
ability to sample the eld very rapidly, most contractors use this type of
magnetometer for all aeromagnetic surveys. The MiniMag magnetometer card
included in the Integrated Airborne Geophysical System is designed to operate
with up to four optically pumped sensors. The Larmor frequency of the
magnetometer is resolved to 1 part in 96,000,000 without ltering, 10 times per
second. A special feature of this system is that the aircraft's heading is
monitored by the system and is used by the MiniMag magnetometer module to
automatically toggle the cesium sensor's polarity as necessary at low magnetic
latitude.
During vertical magnetic gradient surveys, two alkali vapor optically pumped
magnetometers are operated together at a xed distance apart and will
therefore measure the vertical gradient of the total eld, the dierence between
the two measurements, as well as the total eld itself. It is, of course, possible to
measure the horizontal gradients as well, but these are not usually geologically
useful. Figure 2.2-2 shows a Navajo aircraft with a vertical magnetic
gradiometer system installed as a tail stinger. This conguration is ideal for
conducting both regional and detailed surveys where the magnetic data is the
primary product of the survey and it permits the carrying on other instruments
for multi-parameter surveys.

Figure A airborne survey Navajo aircraft with the twin

2.2-2: stinger vertical magnetic gradiometer installed.
Each of the two tale stingers houses an optically
pumped magnetometer.

2.3 Survey Operations

Many of the following comments are applicable to all geophysical surveys; not
just aeromagnetic surveys. In some cases, the details of the application of the
ideas presented here will need to be altered to suit the specic needs of
electromagnetic or radiometric data. In the sections where these data types are
discussed, we will indicate where the requirements of that specic type of data
may dier from those discussed here.
The nal products of an airborne geophysical survey, in this case aeromagnetic,
are usually one or more maps such as the contoured total magnetic eld,
coloured and/or shadow maps of the total eld or a parameter derived from the
total eld, and a digital data le recorded on a convenient medium that contains
the time, location and value of each measurement and any other information
relevant to that measurement. Because we actually measure the eld only at
discrete points in time and along ight lines, all maps, other than prole maps,
are an interpolation of the measured data. The selection of survey parameters by
the exploration manager, such as line spacing, altitude, and the orientation of
the traverse lines as well as compilation and presentation procedures and an
evaluation of the anticipated noise - both temporal and geological - should all be
made with the desired accuracy of the nal products as your guide. These
parameters should be detailed in the Contract Specications. For multi-method
surveys, the survey parameters should be chosen to t the needs of the method
most sensitive to them, or in cases of conict, of the method expected to yield
the most useful data. Typical major points that we recommend that should be
covered by an airborne survey contract are listed in table 2.3 - 1.

When evaluating competitive bids for airborne surveying the following two
general catagories should be considered and each proposal graded under these
points.
1. Quality of the proposal (Technical), Company Experience,
2. Project personnel (Qualications), Delivery dates and Price.
Three of the most important factors to be specied for any airborne geophysical
survey are:
1. The ight height
2. the traverse line separation
3. The traverse line orientation (direction)
For aeromagnetic surveys, the number of, or separation between, control lines,
used when leveling the data, should also be specied. We will deal with these
parameters in some detail.

Table 2.3-1 Contract Specications

1. General Specications
Area outline, number of line kilometers to be surveyed.
Time period of contract
Authorities
Deliveries
Legalities
Basis of payment
Excluded costs
Missing or sub-standard data
Price quote
2. Survey Equipment Specications
Instrument or survey type
Minimum data accuracy and frequency of measurement and data
acquisition system.
Minimum navigational accuracy and navigation systems.
Ground monitoring requirements.
Digital recording medium for delivery.
3. Survey Flying Specications
Traverse line spacing and, when necessary, control line spacing.
Diurnal (and other temporal) variation envelope
Flight altitude tolerances
Instrument calibration requirements
Navigation and ight path tolerances
Base map source
4. Data Compilation and Interpretation
Flight path recovery (method and accuracy)
Data corrections required (Leveling Procedure for magnetic data)
Final compilation products required including map and chart scales,
titles, legends, etc.
Interpretation (if required) and presentation products and procedures.

2.3a Survey Design

The selection of traverse line spacing and ight elevation depends critically on
the selection of the line direction. The selection of line direction depends on two
main consideration, the magnetic inclination in the survey area (sometimes
called the magnetic latitude of the area), and the geological strike of the
phenomena of most importance to the exploration objective.
Figure 2.3-1 shows north-south oriented magnetic proles across a dipole source
at various magnetic latitudes. In the southern hemisphere south is towards the
right hand side; in the northern hemisphere north is towards the right. Note that
the anomaly produced by the dipole is symmetrical at the pole and at the
equator, but is non-symmetrical everywhere else. This implies that the true
shape of a magnetic feature is best dened along a north south traverse in most
areas of the world. Thus the preferred traverse ight line direction would be
north-south if the anomalies in the area were distributed randomly. Because
regional surveys are conducted over very large areas usually containing various
geological strike directions, a north-south traverse line orientation is usually
preferred for aeromagnetic surveys.

Figure 2.3-1: Proles of total intensity anomaly from a dipole source at north
geomagnetic latitudes where i = 0, 15, 30,45 ,60, 75 and 90 degrees.

However, if the survey area is known to contain a pronounced geological strike

direction and the magnetic latitude is either very high or very low it may be
advantageous to orient the traverse line direction perpendicular to the
geological strike direction. The advantages of this orientation arise because
many of the most useful magnetic features arise from linear features like dikes
and or faults, and by orienting the traverse lines at right angles to these
features, we can be condent that only a few anomalies will not cross the
selected ight lines.
The respective values of line spacing and height, for all types of geophysical
surveys, should be selected in order to reduce the amount of aliasing to less than
5% in the recorded data. Aliasing of data occurs when we try to extract
anomalies or signals possessing a wavelength k less than twice the sample, or
line, spacing Dx. This idea is illustrated, for simple sine waves, in gure 2.3-2.

Figure 2.3-2: Illustrating the eect of aliasing on two sine waves having
wavelengths of 1/4Dx and 3/4Dx respectively. Note that, when sampled as
indicated by the circles, we cannot tell which wave is actually present.
In the limiting case k is called the Nyquist wavelength Kn, where:
Kn = 2 Dx
Any anomaly with a "true" wavelength less than Kn will not be identied, and
will have the eect of distorting the good data that posses wavelengths longer
than the Nyquist.
When dealing with an assemblage of magnetic sources it can be shown that the
amount of aliasing is simply related to a ratio of the sensor height above the
source to the line spacing. In hard rock environments, the sensor height will
usually be the distance from the sensor to the surface; however in areas covered
by sediments or other non magnetic material, this height will be the ight height
plus the thickness of the overlying non-magnetic sediments. As a rule of thumb,
the line spacing should equal the sensor height for complete denition of the
anomalous magnetic eld. However, economic considerations may require a
larger line spacing. In this case, the amount of detail required in the survey will
depend on the desired use of the data and will, in turn, determine the
permissible level of aliasing. Suggested optimum line spacing for given sensor
heights is specied in gure 2.3-3 based on a selection of desired products. The
larger value in each range may be used if the line direction is perpendicular to
the strike of the majority of magnetic structures.

Figure 2.3-3: Optimum line

spacing vs. height for
aeromagnetic surveys. Note
that line spacings should be
smaller if very sophisticated
interpretation methods are
going to be applied to the
data.

Control lines are own to

permit leveling of the
survey data. In small
surveys, at least three
control lines should be own
at right angles to the
traverse line direction.
In large surveys, control lines
should be spaced at intervals
of ve to ten times the traverse
line spacing as is illustrated
in gure 2.3-4.

Figure 2.3-4: A typical ight path pattern own during geophysical surveys.

2.3b Noise
Table 2.3-2 summarizes the sources of, and typical ranges of, expected noise for
various types of aeromagnetic surveys.

Table 2.3-2: SURVEY ACCURACY (In Nanoteslas)

Survey sensor

Alkali
Vapor

Proton Fluxgate

Resolution

.01 -.25

.1 - 1

.1 - 2

Instrumental
error

.01 - .5

.1 - 1.

.5 - 1.

Diurnal etc.

.5 - 2.

.5 - 2

.5 - 2

Positioning
Errors

.25 - 5

.25 - 5 .25 - 5

Total

.77 - 4.75

.95 - 9

1.35 10

As is evident in this table, the major noise sources are the temporal changes and
positioning errors. the Contractor's technicians and geophysicists monitor the
temporal changes using the Ground Monitoring System and both network and
micro-leveling methods to eliminate virtually all of the data errors that arises
from temporal changes in the eld. Figure 2.3-5 shows the display screen from
this module with the magnetometer data, fourth dierence, and the altimeter
proles displayed in real time.
Positioning errors arise from the inability to navigate and record the sensor
position with absolute precision. Before the advent of dierential GPS
positioning systems, these errors could be quite large. For example, in an area
where the normal geomagnetic eld gradient is of the order of 5 nT per
horizontal kilometer and 31 nT per vertical kilometer a magnetic reading will be
in error by 1 nT if it is misplaced by 150 meters horizontally or 30 meters
vertically. To attain a one-tenth nT accuracy the sensor position must be known
to within 15 meters horizontally and 3 meters vertically. The typical GPS
Navigation Module can provide a dierentially corrected position accurate to
within about 3 meters. Thus it is now possible to attain survey data accuracy of
the order of one tenth of a nano tesla in magnetic surveys having gradients
similar to those described above. While the gradients described above, are
rather gentle in a hard rock environment such as a shield area, they are common
in sedimentary environments important to hydrocarbon exploration where it is
important to accurately dene very subtle anomalies.
Within the GPS Navigation Module, all data from a high accuracy, high speed
GPS receiver card, such as the Novatel 12 channel card, is available to the
Integrated Geophysical system directly on the systems computer bus. Prior to
initiating ight operations, or at any time during ight, the status of the GPS
satellites can be monitored. Satellite or radio link real time dierentially
corrected GPS (DGPS) systems are also available.

Typically the contractor's Airborne Geophysical System enables the geophysical

technician to quickly and thoroughly monitor system performance on the ground
in preparation for ight. Once cleared for operation the pilot takes over, selects a
survey area on the touch screen, and begins data collection. An on-board
operator or navigator is not required under most survey conditions and the
weight saving can be converted to extra fuel and, hence added range and
productivity. Figure 2.3- 6 shows the Navigation Module screen as it would be
seen by the pilot during survey operations.
Figure2.3-6: Typical on-board control display screen. The screen at the left
shows a test of the uncorrected GPS position of the aircraft at rest while the
right screen illustrated an outline of the survey area with completed lines
indicated.

2.4 Magnetic Gradiometer Surveys

This section is not nished yet. Sorry