This paper describes the airborne electromagnetic (AEM) system operated by the Joint Airborne geoscience Capability (JAC), a partnership between the Finnish and British Geological Surveys. The system is a component of a 3-in-1, fixed-wing facility acquiring magnetic gradiometer and full spectrum radiometric data alongside the wing-tip, frequency-domain AEM measurements. The AEM system has recently (2005) been upgraded from 2 to 4 frequencies and now provides a bandwidth from 900 Hz to 25 kHz. The fixed-wing configuration of 4 dual vertical coplanar coils, offers a high signal/noise by virtue of the wingspan separation of the sensors. This unique configuration allows 3-in-1 surveys to be successfully performed at a variety of survey elevations when regulatory conditions are imposed. Its deployment on a twin-engine aircraft also permits low altitude surveying in countries, such as the UK, where this is a requirement.The development of the new AEM-05 system has been incremental and its history can be traced back over five decades. The AEM data acquired in the Finnish National Mapping project, and across northern Europe, have been used extensively in mineral exploration. More recent projects have investigated the application of the data to environmental, hydrogeological and land quality issues. These studies have been enhanced by reducing the flight line separation from 200 m (the national highresolution scale) to 50 m.Our surveys also increasingly involve the application of AEM across populated areas often with extensive infrastructure. Additional secondary instrumentation has been introduced to provide an increased understanding of the data and the AEM responses observed. The secondary systems include an accurate, high sampling rate laser altimeter, a downward-looking digital camera to record the flight path, a 50/60 Hz power line monitor and a GPS gyroscope. The paper is intended as an overview and provides descriptions of the new AEM system, the secondary systems now employed and some of the software used to provide accurate and levelled AEM data. Recent applications of the system are reviewed and the challenging nature of the new subsurface information being revealed is demonstrated.3
A network of high resolution seismic reflection profiles was acquired in Outokumpu, Finland. Outokumpu is one of the most important mining regions in Finland where active sulphide exploration is ongoing. Over 5 km long spread with 402 active channels and nominal vibroseismic source point interval of 25 m guarantee high fold and good signal-to-noise ratio of the seismic data. These high quality data have been commercially processed by Vniigeofizika, Moscow with standard hardrock seismic processing flow including careful static corrections. Seismic sections were migrated and depth converted with constant velocity (5400 m/s) that corresponds approximately to the seismic P-wave velocity in the main lithology of the area, mica schist. Additionally to seismic velocities, also densities of the main lithologies have been measured from the 2.5 km long drill hole. This enables estimation of the main sources of reflectivity in the Outokumpu area. Encouragingly, typical ore hosting lithological assemblage was found to be brightly reflective both externally and internally due to interlayers of high acoustic impedance skarns and low acoustic impedance serpentinites. All together nine interconnected seismic profiles combined with the drill hole logging data and other geophysical data, including ZTEM survey, enable the 3D-modeling of the Outokumpu subsurface structures.
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