Our main activities concern the theory and application of electromagnetic methods in applied geophysics. Electromagnetic fields provide important information about the structure of the Earth's interior on scales ranging from a few centimetres to several tens of kilometres. We develop numerical simulation and inversion software for the following marine, airborne or land-based methods:
- DC resistivity methods and induced polarisation
- Transient electromagnetics
- Magnetotellurics and VLF/VLF-R
- Electromagnetics
- High-frequencyElectromagnetics and Ground Penetrating Radar
- Magnetics
- Gravimetry
Our numerical methods are based on finite difference and finite element methods. The latter are formulated on unstructured tetrahedral grids and are capable of incorporating arbitrary geometries and topographies. The inversion strategies include Newton, quasi-Newton, Gauss-Newton and all-at-once approaches. We have also gained experience with stochastic approaches such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and neural networks.
We use our methods to tackle a wide range of practical problems and application areas:
- Mineral exploration
- Geothermal energy
- Hydrocarbon exploration and gas hydrates
- Groundwater
- Volcanoes
- Archaeology
- Soil remediation and environmental problems
- Earth-like planets
- Tree root zones and ecosystems