USGS - science for a changing world

USGS Groundwater Information: Hydrogeophysics Branch

*  Home *  Resources *  Research *  Publications *  About *  Contact Us *  Groundwater Information

ATTENTION:
As part of improvements to the USGS Water Resources Mission Area web presence to better serve you, this site is being sunset.
As some content is migrated to new locations, users will be redirected automatically.
In the interim, these pages are not being updated.
If you have questions, please contact the Hydrogeophysics Branch at hgb_help@usgs.gov

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Internal USGS users should bookmark our new HGB internal home page: https://water.usgs.gov/usgs/espd/hgb/


Assessing the resolution-dependent utility of tomograms for geostatistics

F.D. Day-Lewis1,2 and J.W. Lane, Jr. 1

1U.S. Geological Survey
Office of Ground Water, Branch of Geophysics
11 Sherman Place, Unit 5015
Storrs, CT 06269

2Dept. of Geology, Bucknell University
daylewis@usgs.gov
Ph: 860 487-7402 x21; Fax: 860 487-8802

Abstract

Geophysical tomograms are used increasingly as auxiliary data for geostatistical modeling of aquifer and reservoir properties. The correlation between tomographic estimates and hydrogeologic properties is commonly based on laboratory measurements, co-located measurements at boreholes, or petrophysical models. The inferred correlation is assumed uniform throughout the interwell region; however, tomographic resolution varies spatially due to acquisition geometry, regularization, data error, and the physics underlying the geophysical measurements. Blurring and inversion artifacts are expected in regions traversed by few or only low-angle raypaths. In the context of radar traveltime tomography, we derive analytical models for (1) the variance of tomographic estimates, (2) the spatially variable correlation with a hydrologic parameter of interest, and (3) the spatial covariance of tomographic estimates. Synthetic examples demonstrate that tomograms of qualitative value may have limited utility for geostatistics; moreover, the imprint of regularization may preclude inference of meaningful spatial statistics from tomograms.


Download Adobe Acrobat version of full paper (1.3MB PDF).

Note: Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view PDF files at the Adobe web site.
Visit http://access.adobe.com for free tools that allow visually impaired users to read PDF files.


Citation: Day-Lewis, F. D., and J. W. Lane, Jr., 2004, Assessing the Resolution-Dependent Utility of Tomograms for Geostatistics: Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 31, L07503, doi:10.1029/2004GL019617, 4 p.

USGS Home Water
Climate and Land Use Change Core Science Systems Ecosystems Energy and Minerals Environmental Health Natural Hazards

Accessibility FOIA Privacy Policies and Notices

USA.gov logo U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: https://water.usgs.gov/ogw/bgas/publications/GRL_2004/index.html
Page Contact Information: Contact the Hydrogeophysics Branch
Page Last Modified: Thursday, 29-Dec-2016 20:03:12 EST