Voxel Inversion of Airborne EM Data

We present a geophysical inversion algorithm working directly in a voxel grid disconnected from the actual measuring points, which allows for straightforward integration of different data types in joint inversion, for informing geological/hydrogeological models directly and for easier incorporation of prior information. Inversion of geophysical data usually refers to a model space being linked to the actual observation points. For airborne surveys the spatial discretization of the model space reflects the flight lines. Often airborne surveys are carried out in areas where other ground-based geophysical data are available. The model space of geophysical inversions is usually referred to the positions of the measurements, and ground-based model positions do not generally coincide with the airborne model positions. Consequently, a model space based on the measuring points is not well suited for jointly inverting airborne and ground-based geophysical data. Furthermore, geological and groundwater models most often refer to a regular voxel grid not correlated to the geophysical model space, and incorporating the geophysical data into the geological/hydrological modelling grids is problematic. We present a voxel grid inversion routine that overcomes these problems and we discuss in detail the algorithm implementation.