An efficient method for processing scalar magnetic gradiometer signals

The work is devoted to the detection and analysis of scalar magnetic gradiometer survey signals caused by the presence of magnetostatic dipole in the vicinity of the survey line. A set of five orthonormal functions obtained with the aid of Gram-Schmidt procedure was found sufficient for an accurate signal description in a wide range of distances between the gradiometer and the dipole. Processing of the acquired signal can be carried out by correlating it with the mentioned five orthonormal functions. In the special case of short-base gradiometer the dipole signal can be expressed by four orthonormal functions. The present work main contribution is in showing that these four orthonormal functions are sufficient and effective for a survey signal processing even when the gradiometer base is not small. The effectiveness of the magnetic anomaly detection procedure is demonstrated for extracting signals in the presence of an additive noise. The practical contribution of such approach is the development of more robust and less time-consuming detection procedures that are vital for successful real-time data processing.