Reduction of noise in induced polarization data using full time-series data

Abstract

There are a variety of noise sources that affect the accuracy of Induced Polarization (IP) data, e.g., cultural noise, varying self-potential, lightning strikes, telluric currents, and electromagnetic (EM) coupling. In this paper, we describe a new IP data collection system that collects full time-series data rather than just a single averaged windowed decay. The recording of the full time series allows for greater flexibility in analysing the data so that noise can be identified and removed. This paper outlines the process used to collect the time-series data, illustrates some of the many types of noise observed in the field, and demonstrates the superiority of the resulting IP data.