Joint processing of total-field and gradient magnetic data using equivalent sources

The use of two to four magnetometers in airborne magnetic surveys is becoming more frequent, allowing for the observation of the total-field as well as its horizontal gradients (Redford, et al., 2006). There are advantages to these data types because of the increased and complementary information content in them. Yet little has been done to take full advantage of these data beyond simple enhancement of the total-field anomaly. As a first step, we have developed an equivalent source processing algorithm by making use of a well-known but little used relationship between the derivative of the total-field with the derivative of its source. Utilizing gradient and totalfield data allows for a constructed susceptibility model for total-field data, constrained by the observed gradients. In this paper, we discuss using gradients in order to construct a more representative dataset through equivalent source processing. The methodology of the joint equivalent source processing technique is presented and a synthetic example is shown.