An overview of the SkyTEM airborne EM system with Australian examples

Andrew Bisset from U3O8 Ltd is thanked for permission to publish the Mad Gap example. The Ord River project was co-funded by the Australian Government in partnership with the Western Australian Government and undertaken under the auspices of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality, and managed by Ord Irrigation Cooperative (OIC) for the WA Rangelands Natural Resource Management Group. Perilya Ltd kindly provided access to their tenements for acquisition of the Flying Doctor dataset. JR would also like to thank Max Halkjaer and Per Gisselø of SkyTEM Aps, Denmark; Esben Auken and Andrea Viezzoli of Aarhus Geophysics Aps Denmark, and Niels Christensen of EMModel, Denmark for technical discussions over the last few years. Tim Munday (CSIRO), Dean Rogers (Perilya Ltd) and Max Halkjaer are thanked for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Auken, E , Christiansen, AV , Jacobsen, BH , Foged, N , and Sørensen, KI (2005). Piecewise 1D Laterally Constrained Inversion of resistivity data. Geophysical Prospecting 53, 497–506.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Christensen N. , Reid J. , and Halkjaer M. , 2009, Fast, laterally-smooth inversion of airborne time-domain electromagnetic data: Near Surface Geophysics, 7, 599–612.

Fullagar PK , Reid JE 2001, EMax conductivity-depth transformation of airborne TEM data: Expanded Abstracts, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists 15th Conference, Brisbane. [CD-ROM]

Fullagar PK , Reid JE , Pears G 2008, Advances in EMaxAir conductivity-depth imaging of airborne TEM data: Conference presentation, 5th international conference on airborne electromagnetics, Haikko Manor, Finland, 28–30 May 2008.

Lane R. , and Pracilio G. , 2000, Visualisation of subsurface conductivity derived from airborne EM: SAGEEP 2000 Proceedings, 101–110.

Lawrie K. , Clarke J. , Hatch M. , Wilkes P. , and Apps H. , 2006, Aquifer systems for salinity and water management in the Ord Irrigation Area: a pilot study into the use of geophysics and other geoscience methods: CRC LEME Restricted Report 232R.

Lawrie K. C. , Clarke J. C. , Tan K. P. , Munday T. J. , Fitzpatrick A. , Brodie R. S. , Pain C. F. , Apps H. , Cullen K. , Halas L. , Kuske T. J. , Cahill K. , and Davis A. , 2010, Using the SkyTEM time domain airborne electromagnetics (AEM) system to map aquifer systems and salinity hazard in the Ord Valley, Western Australia: Geoscience Australia Professional Opinion 2010/01.

MacInnes S. , and Raymond M. , 2001, STEMINV Documentation – smooth model TEM inversion, V.3.00: Zonge Engineering and Research Organization.

Reid JE , Munday T , Fitzpatrick A 2007, High-resolution airborne electromagnetic surveying for dryland salinity management: the Toolibin Lake SkyTEM case study, W.A.: Expanded Abstracts, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists 19th Conference, Perth.

Sørensen, KI , and Auken, E (2004). SkyTEM – a new high-resolution helicopter transient electromagnetic system. Exploration Geophysics 35, 194–202.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |

Viezzoli, A , Auken, E , and Munday, T (2009). Spatially constrained inversion for quasi 3D modelling of airborne electromagnetic data – an application for environmental assessment in the Lower Murray Region of South Australia. Exploration Geophysics 40, 173–183.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |