A robust method for computing vertical derivatives of potential fields using upward continuation data

ABSTRACT Vertical derivatives play an important role in qualitative and quantitative interpretations of potential fields. Nevertheless, the common methods are not stable in the presence of noise. In this study, a new method based on upward continuation data and Taylor series expansion to perform stable vertical derivatives was introduced. Unlike previous methods, the presented method used only upward continuation data, which made it less sensitive to noise while still providing vertical derivatives at the observed plane. The presented method was tested on synthetic data and field data from the Vredefort impact structure, South Africa. In the synthetic examples, the proposed method was more stable and accurate than other methods. In the real example, the findings showed that the vertical derivatives computed by the proposed method were also more stable, and the use of these derivatives in the enhanced horizontal derivative filter provided the linear structures more clearly than others.