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Title: Characterize Basin‐Scale Subsurface Using Rocket‐Triggered Lightning
Abstract

This paper exploits triggered lightning as a point source for the basin‐scale electromagnetic tomographic survey to image 3‐D subsurface electrical properties in basins. This paper further develops a new temporal moment approach, overcoming the difficulties in forward and inverse modeling of 3‐D Maxwell’s equations with heterogeneous parameter fields. Using this approach, we find that the influence of a single triggered lightning strike covers a radius of 20–70 km with detectable signals. The cross‐correlation analysis between the moment difference of the electric and electric/magnetic property field indicates that the approach is suitable for mapping subsurface electric conductivity () heterogeneity. A numerical experiment with 3‐D spatially random parameter fields demonstrates that the method captures the spatial distribution of electric conductivity over large areas with a sparse monitoring network. It reveals the potential of using triggered lightning as a basin‐scale electric/magnetic tomography survey.

 
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NSF-PAR ID:
10383709
Author(s) / Creator(s):
 ;  ;  ;  ;  ;  
Publisher / Repository:
DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Geophysical Research Letters
Volume:
49
Issue:
23
ISSN:
0094-8276
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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