Fast 3D time-domain airborne EM forward modeling using random under-sampling

Abstract The high sampling rate of airborne electromagnetic (AEM) systems can create huge data volumes, causing major challenges for three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic modeling and inversions and constraining the practical applicability of AEM. Rapid and accurate forward modeling is the key to efficient 3D inversion. Here a new strategy for improving the efficiency of 3D time-domain AEM forward modeling is presented, based on compressed-sensing theory combined with the finite-volume method. A Poisson disk random under-sampling method was used to obtain random survey stations and to calculate AEM responses via the finite-volume method at these sampling stations. Coefficients from the curvelet transform with anisotropic characteristics for sparse expression were used to analyze the sparsity of AEM data, with the AEM responses of all survey stations being obtained by reconstruction. Key factors influencing the accuracy of the reconstruction are also discussed, including the sampling method and rate, the sparse transformation, and the noise. To test the effectiveness of the method, reconstructed results were compared with those from traditional schemes for forward modeling using all stations. Results indicate that the new strategy requires only 20% ~ 50% of samples to achieve high-precision reconstruction of the AEM signal even for complex geoelectrical structures, and the efficiency of 3D forward modeling can be enhanced by a factor of two to five, laying a foundation for fast AEM inversions of large datasets and complex models.