Investigation on a Novel Capacitive Electrode for Geophysical Surveys

Nonpolarizable electrodes are applied widely in the electric field measurement for geophysical surveys. However, there are two major problems: (1) systematic errors caused by poor electrical contact in the high resistive terrains and (2) environmental damage associated with using nonpolarizable electrodes. A new alternative structure of capacitive electrode, which is capable of sensing surface potential through weak capacitive coupling, is presented to solve the above problems. A technique is introduced to neutralize distributed capacitance and input capacitance of the detection circuit. With the capacitance neutralization technique, the transmission coefficient of capacitive electrode remains stable when environmental conditions change. The simulation and field test results indicate that the new capacitive electrode has an operating bandwidth range from 0.1 Hz to 1 kHz. The capacitive electrodes have a good prospect of the applications in geophysical prospecting, especially in resistive terrains.