Magnetic Viscosity Effect on Grounded-Wire TEM Responses and Its Physical Mechanism

Magnetic viscosity (MV) effect is a disturbance to the transient electromagnetic method (TEM). This effect will cause slow decay at the intermediate-late time of the TEM responses, leading to erroneous interpretation. Although there are extensive researches on the MV distortion to TEM data, they are focused on conventional loop source configuration, while little has been studied for grounded-wire source configuration that has become the essential role for relatively deep-buried targets. Hence, we present the study of MV effect on the grounded-wire source TEM data. We first derived the formulas for calculating the secondary field due to MV effect, based on the Chikazumi model. The dependence of the MV effect on model parameters, such as resistivity, susceptibility, offset and geometry of the superparamagnetic layer, is then examined to illustrate the intrinsic physical mechanism of MV effect. We find that the MV effect on the grounded-wire source TEM data can be suppressed by adjusting the parameters of the survey design. Thereafter, we propose the method to quantify the MV effect when estimates of resistivity and susceptibility are available. Finally, the method for choosing the optimal offset to suppress the MV effect is proposed, which can be used as a guide for the installation of fieldwork of grounded-wire TEM survey.