Processing and interpretation of magnetic data usually require information of total magnetization direction. However, under the effects of remanent magnetization, total magnetization direction is different from induced magnetization direction, which makes data processing and interpretation complexity. In this paper, we present a new method by cross-correlation of magnetic dipole source for determination of magnetization direction from relatively isolated and approximate equiaxial-shape magnetic total field anomaly. This method calculates cross-correlation coefficient between observed magnetic total field anomaly and theoretical magnetic total field anomaly caused by a magnetic dipole source, by using a set of varying parameters of positions and total magnetization direction of dipole source for trial and error. The corresponding magnetization direction of maximum correlation coefficient is regarded as estimated total magnetization direction. Test on synthetic data indicates that this method reliably and effectively estimates the magnetization direction from relatively isolated and approximate equiaxial-shape magnetic total field anomaly.

Under the effects of remanent magnetization, total magnetization direction is different from geomagnetic field direction, which makes magnetic data processing and interpretation complexity. In this paper, we present a new approach for estimating the total magnetization direction of sources via cross-correlation between the reduced-to-pole anomaly and the normalized source strength (who is less sensitive to remanent magnetization). The geomagnetic field direction is used to calculated the normalized source strength, while various assumed total magnetization directions are used to calculated the RTP anomalies. The maximum correlation between the RTP anomalies and the normalized corresponds to the estimated total magnetization direction. Test on synthetic data showed that the new approach is simple and effective.