Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

The growing use of the controlled-source electromagnetic method (CSEM) for exploration applications has been driving the technical development of data acquisition, as well as three-dimensional (3D) modeling and imaging techniques. However, targeting increasingly complex geological environments also further enhances the problems inherent in large-scale inversion, such as non-uniqueness and resolution issues. In this paper, we report on two techniques to mitigate these problems. We use 3D joint CSEM and MT inversion to improve the model resolution. Further, a hybrid model parameterization approach is presented, where traditional cell-based model parameters are used simultaneously within a parametric inversion.