A review of AEM in South Australia

The Test Flight of iFTEM-I Fixed-Wing Airborne Time-Domain Electromagnetic System in Binxian, Heilongjiang Province, China

“…The fixed-wing time-domain airborne electromagnetic method (FTEM) is a geophysical exploration technique [1] which is based on fixed-wing aircraft and equipped with timedomain electromagnetic exploration equipment. INPUT (Induced Pulse Transient) was first introduced in 1959; it was the first time-domain airborne EM system which used semi-sinusoid waves with positive and reverse alternations as transmitter currents and measured the secondary field during the off-time [2,3]. This type of system can be called a pulse system.…”

“…This type of system can be called a pulse system. Few people appreciated the full impact that this development would have on the future of FTEM at that time [3], and in the 50 years after its first introduction, more than 20 FTEM systems (Figure 1) have been developed worldwide, such as QUESTEM, SALTMAP, TEMPEST, SPECTREM, GEOTEM, and MEGTEM [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. These FTEM systems were gradually improved and developed on the basis of the INPUT system or inspired or influenced by its technical principles.…”

“…By the early 21st century, these systems had been used to carry out millions of kilometers of surveys in Africa, North America, South America, Europe, and Australia, and their application fields had been extended from the original exploration of sulfide ore, uranium, kimberlite, geological mapping, groundwater mapping, erosion zone detection, etc. ; however, the most important target was their use in mineral surveys [2,5,6,10,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. The R&D for airborne electromagnetic systems began in China in the late 1950s, but these systems were not developed smoothly for various reasons [15].…”