Abstract
This letter proposes a novel extremely low frequency (ELF) radar for major oil deposits. Using our recently developed whole-Earth electromagnetic wave propagation model based upon the finite-difference time-domain method, we have determined that detection of the radial (vertical) component of the scattered H -field provides a sensitive means to detect oil fields that are located within several kilometers of the Earth's surface. As an example, we provide numerical simulations of ELF radar returns from a hypothetical Alaskan oil field excited by a 20-Hz pulse emitted from the former U.S. Navy site in Wisconsin. The proposed method would potentially provide means to rapidly and inexpensively conduct aerial surveys of thousands of square kilometers for significant oil deposits.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 36-39 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2006 |
Funding
Manuscript received April 19, 2005; revised June 26, 2005. This work was supported in part by the National Computational Science Alliance under Grant DMS040006N. The authors are with the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department, Northwestern University, Technological Institute, Evanston, IL 60208 USA (e-mail: [email protected]). Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LGRS.2005.856118
Keywords
- Aerial electromagnetic surveying
- Earth
- Electromagnetic sounding
- Extremely low frequency (ELF)
- Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD)
- Oil field
- SQUID magnetometer
- U.S. Navy Wisconsin Transmitter Facility (WTF)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering