a b s t r a c tInverse modeling is a powerful tool for extracting information about the subsurface from geophysical data. Geophysical inverse problems are inherently multidisciplinary, requiring elements from the relevant physics, numerical simulation, and optimization, as well as knowledge of the geologic setting, and a comprehension of the interplay between all of these elements. The development and advancement of inversion methodologies can be enabled by a framework that supports experimentation, is flexible and extensible, and allows the knowledge generated to be captured and shared. The goal of this paper is to propose a framework that supports many different types of geophysical forward simulations and deterministic inverse problems. Additionally, we provide an open source implementation of this framework in Python called SIMPEG (Simulation and Parameter Estimation in Geophysics, http://simpeg.xyz). Included in SIMPEG are staggered grid, mimetic finite volume discretizations on a number of structured and semi-structured meshes, convex optimization programs, inversion routines, model parameterizations, useful utility codes, and interfaces to standard numerical solver packages. The framework and implementation are modular, allowing the user to explore, experiment with, and iterate over a variety of approaches to the inverse problem. SIMPEG provides an extensible, documented, and well-tested framework for inverting many types of geophysical data and thereby helping to answer questions in geoscience applications. Throughout the paper we use a generic direct current resistivity problem to illustrate the framework and functionality of SIMPEG.

Simulations and inversions of electromagnetic geophysical data are paramount for discerning meaningful information about the subsurface from these data. Depending on the nature of the source electromagnetic experiments may be classified as time-domain or frequency-domain. Multiple heterogeneous and sometimes anisotropic physical properties, including electrical conductivity and magnetic permeability, may need be considered in a simulation. Depending on what one wants to accomplish in an inversion, the parameters which one inverts for may be a voxel-based description of the earth or some parametric representation that must be mapped onto a simulation mesh. Each of these permutations of the electromagnetic problem has implications in a numerical implementation of the forward simulation as well as in the computation of the sensitivities, which are required when considering gradient-based inversions. This paper proposes a framework for organizing and implementing electromagnetic simulations and gradient-based inversions in a modular, extensible fashion. We take an object-oriented approach for defining and organizing each of the necessary elements in an electromagnetic simulation, including: the physical properties, sources, formulation of the discrete problem to be solved, the resulting fields and fluxes, and receivers used to sample to the electromagnetic responses. A corresponding implementation is provided as part of the open source simulation and parameter estimation project SimPEG (http://simpeg.xyz). The application of the framework is demonstrated through two synthetic examples and one field example

No abstract

Electromagnetics has an important role to play in solving the next generation of geoscience problems. These problems are multidisciplinary, complex, and require collaboration. This is especially true at the base scientific level where the underlying physical equations need to be solved, and data, associated with physical experiments, need to be inverted. In this paper, we present arguments for adopting an open-source methodology for geophysics and provide some background about open-source software for electromagnetics. Immediate benefits are the reduced time required to carry out research, being able to collaborate, having reproducible results, and being able to disseminate results quickly. To illustrate the use of an open-source methodology in electromagnetics, we present two challenges. The first is to simulate data from a time domain airborne system over a conductive plate buried in a more resistive earth. The second is to jointly invert airborne TDEM and FDEM data with ground TDEM. SimPEG, Simulation and Parameter Estimation in Geophysics, (https://simpeg.xyz) is used for the open-source software. The figures in this paper can be reproduced by downloading the Jupyter Notebooks we provide with this paper (https://github.com/simpegresearch/oldenburg-2018-AEM). Access to the source code allows the researcher to explore the simulations and inversions by changing model and inversion parameters, plot fields and fluxes to gain further insight about the EM phenomena, and solve a new research problem by using open-source software as a base. By providing results in a manner that allows others to reproduce, further explore, and even extend them, we hope to demonstrate that an open-source paradigm has the potential to enable more rapid progress of the geophysics community as a whole.

No abstract