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Reduction to Pole

Chapter · January 2007

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-4423-6_275

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 Ravat, D., 2007, Reduction to pole, Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and
Paleomagnetism, D. Gubbins and E. Herrero-Bervera (eds.), Springer, 856-857.

to a. The magnetization direction of the source is usually not known

REDUCTION TO POLE
Introduced by Baranov (1957) (see also, Baranov and Naudy, 1964),
the reduction-to-pole transformation of total field magnetic anomalies
(see crustal magnetic field) is intended to remove the skewness of
the anomalies (see Figure R1). The transformation makes the anoma-
lies overlie the sources, makes it possible to correlate the magnetic
anomalies with other types of geophysical anomalies (e.g., gravity)
and geological information, and aids their interpretation. In reality,
even the amplitude of the anomaly is affected (increased) when
sources of induced magnetization are observed at poles in comparison
to lower magnetic latitudes because the Earth's field intensity
increases from equator to poles; some of the reduction-to-pole methods
can take this change in amplitude into account (e.g., equivalent source
method) while the others typically do not (e.g., rectangular coordinate
wavenumber domain methods). The expression of a magnetic anom-
aly, DT, due to a localized spherical source of uniform magnetization
is helpful in understanding the transformation
] ]2 1
DT ðrÞ ¼
DVa ðrÞ ¼ DJ ; B2
]b ]b]a r
where r is source to observation distance, DVa is anomalous potential
due to the uniform anomalous magnetization direction a, DJ is the
intensity of anomalous magnetization (qv), and b is the direction of
the Earth's main field (assumed uniform). To derive the anomalous
source function (DJ/r), one integrates the equation twice, once with
respect to b (to find the anomalous potential), and once with respect
and, therefore, induced magnetization is assumed, leading to a ¼ b.
The reduced-to-pole magnetic anomaly (vertical intensity anomaly
due to vertical magnetization) can then be computed by twice differen-
tiating this source function in the vertical direction (to find first the
potential due to the vertically magnetized source, and then its anomaly
in the vertical direction) as
Z 1 Z 1
]2
DTz ðrÞ ¼ DZðrÞ ¼ DT ðrÞ]a]b;
]z2
1
1
where both DZ and DTz represent the vertical intensity magnetic
anomaly.
In practice, these computations are significantly easier to perform in
the wavenumber domain, where the process of integration involves
division by a factor and differentiation involves multiplication by
a factor. Under induced magnetization conditions (i.e., a ¼ b), the
reduced-to-pole anomaly in the wavenumber domain is given by
DT ðkÞ
DTz ðkÞ ¼ jk j2 ;
where asterisks denote wavenumber domain representation of the
respective anomalies, k is the radial wavenumber; in Cartesian coordi-
nates, k ¼ ðkx2 þ ky2 Þ1=2 , where kx and ky are the wavenumbers in x and
y directions; and B ¼ 1=½ikx cos I cos D þ iky cos I sin D þ k sin I,
where I and D are the main field inclination and declination, respec-
tively, and the trigonometric quantities represent direction cosines in the
north, east, and down directions, respectively. An iterative wavenumber

Figure R1 Skewness of a magnetic anomaly due to a uniform arbitrarily magnetized source below Earth’s surface in an obliquely
oriented Earth’s magnetic field (left) and its reduced-to-pole expression in the vertical magnetization and vertical field conditions (right).
 2 REDUCTION TO POLE
domain method for variable directions of magnetization and Earth's
field intensity appropriate for a large region is described by Arkani-
Hamed (1988).
Another customary approach of achieving reduction to pole is
through the equivalent source technique (Dampney, 1969; Emilia,
1973; von Frese et al., 1981, 1988; Silva, 1986), where a configuration
of equivalent sources is first assumed. Magnetization is generally
assumed in the direction of the inducing field, but it can also be differ-
ent if known for particular sources. Using inverse methods, and taking
advantage of Green's principle of the equivalent layer (see Blakely,
1995), one can map magnetization variation for the region where
anomalies are available. Using the derived magnetization distribution,
it is possible to compute the reduced-to-pole anomaly under vertical
magnetization and vertical Earth's field conditions.
The equivalent source method is subject to instabilities due to a
variety of reasons (e.g., spacing of sources, altitude difference between
observations and the sources, low magnetic inclinations, etc.), but
most of the instabilities can be reduced or eliminated using damped
least-squares or ridge regression approach (Silva, 1986; von Frese
et al., 1988). The wavenumber domain reduction-to-pole operations
also encounter instabilities in low magnetic latitudes (<30 inclina-
tion, i.e., when the terms involving vertical component of direction
cosines are close to zero). Under these circumstances, when the other
two direction cosines nearly negate one another, which happens along
a line in a kx–ky plane due to the shape of the reduction-to-pole filter
(see, e.g., Blakely, 1995), the quantity B2 is nearly zero and small
errors in the anomaly field are significantly enlarged in the reduc-
tion-to-pole process. Hansen and Pawlowski (1989) describe methods
to overcome these artifacts by designing a Wiener filter for this
purpose.
Dhananjay Ravat
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Bibliography
Arkani-Hamed, J., 1988. Differential reduction-to-the-pole of regional
magnetic anomalies. Geophysics, 53: 1592–1600.
Baranov, V., 1957. A new method for interpretation of aeromagnetic
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Baranov, V., and Naudy, H., 1964. Numerical calculation of the for-
mula of reduction to the magnetic pole. Geophysics, 29: 67–79.
Blakely, R.J., 1995. Potential Theory in Gravity and Magnetic Appli-
cations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dampney, C.N.G., 1969. The equivalent source technique. Geophy-
sics, 34: 39–53.
Emilia, D.A., 1973. Equivalent sources used as an analytic base for
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von Frese, R.R.B., Hinze, W.J., and Braile, L.W., 1981. Spherical earth
gravity and magnetic anomaly analysis by equivalent point source
inversion. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 53: 69–83.
von Frese, R.R.B., Ravat, D., Hinze, W.J., and McGue, C.A., 1988.
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investigations. Geophysics, 53: 375–385.
Hansen, R.O., and Pawlowski, R.S., 1989. Reduction to the pole at
low latitudes by Wiener filtering. Geophysics, 54: 1607–1613.
Silva, B.C.J., 1986. Reduction to the pole as an inverse problem and
its application to low latitude anomalies. Geophysics, 51: 369–382.
Cross-references
Crustal Magnetic Field
Magnetic Anomalies