Extremely compact sources (ECS): a new potential field filtering method.

Area of Science:

• Geophysics
• Potential Field Methods

Background:

• Potential field data (gravity and magnetic) interpretation is often non-unique.
• Traditional filtering methods face challenges in separating complex anomalies and isolating regional/residual fields.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel filtering technique for potential fields based on the Extremely Compact Sources (ECS) model.
• To demonstrate the capability of ECS filtering for anomaly separation and regional/residual decomposition.

Main Methods:

• Modeling potential fields using "Extremely Compact Sources" (ECS), characterized by sparsity and high physical property values.
• Developing a localized filter derived from the ECS model's sparse nature.
• Applying the ECS filter to synthetic datasets and real gravity data from Campi Flegrei.

Main Results:

• The ECS model provides an atomized representation satisfying the non-unique inverse problem.
• The localized ECS filter effectively separates interfering anomalies with similar wavenumber content.
• Successful regional/residual separation was achieved.
• The gravity effect of the Mount Olibano dome was isolated using ECS filtering.

Conclusions:

• Extremely Compact Sources (ECS) offer a powerful new approach for potential field filtering.
• ECS filtering overcomes limitations of traditional methods in anomaly separation and field decomposition.
• The method shows practical utility in complex geological settings like volcanic areas.