Pulsed Electromagnetic Cross-Well Exploration for Monitoring Permafrost and Examining the Processes of Its Geocryological Changes

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the topical problem of examining permafrost’s state and the processes of its geocryological changes by means of geophysical methods. To monitor the cryolithozone, we proposed and scientifically substantiated a new technique of pulsed electromagnetic cross-well sounding. Based on the vector finite-element method, we created a mathematical model of the cross-well sounding process with a pulsed source in a three-dimensional spatially heterogeneous medium. A high-performance parallel computing algorithm was developed and verified. Through realistic geoelectric models of permafrost with a talik under a highway, constructed following the results of electrotomography field data interpretation, we numerically simulated the pulsed sounding on the computing resources of the Siberian Supercomputer Center of SB RAS. The simulation results suggest the proposed system of pulsed electromagnetic cross-well monitoring to be characterized by a high sensitivity to the presence and dimensions of the talik. The devised approach can be oriented to addressing a wide range of issues related to monitoring permafrost rocks under civil and industrial facilities, buildings, and constructions.

Transient Electromagnetic Monitoring of Permafrost: Mathematical Modeling Based on Sumudu Integral Transform and Artificial Neural Networks

“…The presented research is devoted to the theoretical development of a cross-borehole TEM technique for the purposes of permafrost monitoring [58]. Promising numerical simulation results have been obtained so far for highways [59] and fuel storage tanks [60]. A prototype of the cross-borehole exploration equipment has been created [61], followed by a series of successful field measurements [62].…”

Assessing the State of Structural Foundations in Permafrost Regions by Means of Acoustic Testing

“…Recently, geophysical methods for permafrost monitoring have been gaining in popularity. In particular, they are used to monitor the humidity and depth of the layer of seasonal thawing [21,22]. The methods described in [21,22] are based on the difference in the permittivity of water and ice.…”