skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Weighted Least Squares Estimates of the Magnetotelluric Transfer Functions from Nonstationary Data

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/893411· OSTI ID:893411

Magnetotelluric field measurements can generally be viewed as sums of signal and additive random noise components. The standard unweighted least squares estimates of the impedance and tipper functions which are usually calculated from noisy data are not optimal when the measured fields are nonstationary. The nonstationary behavior of the signals and noises should be exploited by weighting the data appropriately to reduce errors in the estimates of the impedances and tippers. Insight into the effects of noise on the estimates is gained by careful development of a statistical model, within a linear system framework, which allows for nonstationary behavior of both the signal and noise components of the measured fields. The signal components are, by definition, linearly related to each other by the impedance and tipper functions. It is therefore appropriate to treat them as deterministic parameters, rather than as random variables, when analyzing the effects of noise on the calculated impedances and tippers. From this viewpoint, weighted least squares procedures are developed to reduce the errors in impedances and tippers which are calculated from nonstationary data.

Research Organization:
DOEEEGTP (USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Geothermal Tech Pgm)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC07-80ID012079
OSTI ID:
893411
Report Number(s):
DOE/ID/12079-86; TRN: US200721%%668
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English