Estimation of electrical conductivity models using multi-coil rigid-boom electromagnetic induction measurements

Electromagnetic induction measurements from multi-coil configuration instruments are used to obtain information about the electrical conductivity distribution in the subsurface. The resulting inverse problem might not have a unique and stable solution. In that case, a local inversion method can be trapped in a local minimum and lead to an incorrect solution. In this study, we evaluate the well-posedness of the inverse problem for two and three-layered electrical conductivity models. We show that for a two-layered model, uniqueness is ensured only when both in-phase and quadrature data are available from the measurements. Results from a Gauss–Newton inversion and a lookup table demonstrate that the solution space is convex. Furthermore, we demonstrate that for even a simple three-layered model, the data contained in such measurements are insufficient to reach a correct or stable solution. For models with more than 2 layers, independent prior information is necessary to solve the inverse problem. The insights from the numerical examples are applied in a field case. • Comparison of model estimations obtained from lookup tables and local inversion. • Analysis of the stability of the inversion problem in the presence of noise. • Demonstration of the solution’s non-uniqueness and instability for 3-layered models. • The Python scripts to reproduce these results are available.