LOUPE - A Portable EM Profiling System

Abstract

Loupe is a new, portable, time-domain electromagnetic system specifically designed for rapid reconnaissance and near-surface conductivity measurements. The receiver and transmitter are each carried by one person on a backpack. Loupe incorporates a 3-component coil sensor with 100 kHz bandwidth, a fast-switching transmitter loop, a simple user-interface and the ability to navigate and recover position using RTK GPS. By virtue of intelligent signal processing, carried out in real-time and in post-acquisition processing, Loupe will operate effectively in the presence of interference from power transmission lines and other sources of noise that traditionally degrade the performance of EM systems in urban areas. A completely portable time-domain EM system of this nature is unique. This paper will discuss the design and features of Loupe and likely applications for it. Here, we present an example of data from a geotechnical investigation. By the time of the conference, we expect to be able to present results from other work done with Loupe in exploration and mine projects. This system, and its results, will be compared against other techniques to illustrate the increase in near-surface resolution and speed of broadband data collection.