Magnetotelluric Instrumentation and Data Processing Short Course
New Mexico Tech, Socorro, NM

This week-long course will provide hands-on experience with the state-of-the-art magnetotelluric (MT) instruments managed by the PASSCAL Instrument Center (PIC) and the evolving landscape of software tools for developing research products with MT datasets. The short course will combine field demonstrations, lectures, guided exercises, and group discussion. Instruction and training will be provided by PIC's technical staff and experts from the MT science community. We welcome participants from a variety of backgrounds and career stages (graduate student and beyond), and are especially keen to engage potential future users of PASSCAL facility portable MT instrument pool. Course enrollment will be capped at around 15 attendees.

Funding to attend is available for individuals currently based at a U.S. academic institutions and for U.S. citizens doing research work abroad, and will support costs related to domestic travel, room, and board. Applications to participate can be submitted by completing the form on the "Apply Online" tab above, and should be submitted no later than Wednesday, September 7, 2022. Selections will be finalized by September 16, and participants should plan to arrive on Sunday, October 16 by late afternoon and depart after midday on Friday, October 21.

Course organizers include Anna Kelbert, Jared Peacock, and Paul Bedrosian (USGS), Esteban Bowles-Martinez (Oregon State University), Lindsey Heagy (Univ. British Columbia), Seogi Kang (Stanford), and Karl Kappler (Imdex Ltd).

Please direct any questions or concerns to Justin Sweet.

The course will be held at the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology (NMT), located in the specatcular geology of the south-central Rio Grande Rift in Socorro, New Mexico, ~1 hour south of Albuquerque. For over two decades, NMT has been home to the PASSCAL Instrument Center, an internationally recognized facility for supporting portable geophysical instrumentation used by Earth scientists.

Selection for the short course includes support for travel (plane, rail, car, taxi, public transit, etc.) between your origin and Albuquerque, with course-organized rides to/from Socorro. Meals during the week will be provided at no cost or will be reimbursed with original itemized receipt. Lodging (single-occupancy) will be provided in Socorro for 5 nights.

All short course participants will be asked to follow our COVID policy, which includes providing proof of vaccination and encourages mask wearing.

Agenda

Day 1 - Introduction to MT Theory and Instrumentation

Monday, October 17th, 2022, 8am–5pm

8:00 am
5:00 pm
  • Intro to EM/MT theory
  • Tour of PASSCAL Instrument Center
  • MT site selection, field logistics, and deployment practices
  • Field demonstrations - Example MT station deployments

Day 1 of the MT short course will take place at the PASSCAL Instrument Center. Participants will learn the basics of MT theory and how MT instrumentation works, what to consider when installing a station, and will finish the day by practicing the deployment of MT instruments in small groups.

Day 2 - MT Data, Data Formats, Software, & Data Processing

Tuesday, October 18th, 2022, 8am–5pm

8:00 am
5:00 pm
  • MT data formats and software tools
  • Archiving and extracting MT data from the IRIS archive
  • Introduction to MT time series data processing and transfer functions
  • Proprietary in-field MT software
  • Open-source MT transfer function processing and analysis software

Day 2 of the MT short course is all about MT data: how MT data is formatted, the tools to archive/extract MT data from the IRIS archive, and how to process timeseries data into transfer functions and use these to begin understanding earth structure.

Day 3 - MT Dataset Explorations

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022, 8am–5pm

8:00 am
5:00 pm
  • Review key MT studies
  • How to explore and characterize an MT datasets
  • MT survey design and relation to datasets
  • Explore regional datasets from EarthScope and other experiments

Day 3 of the MT short course will walk through several existing datasets to illustrate what MT can tell us about the Earth (variations in structure, composition, presence of melt, and more!) and how the design of an MT survey will impact the dataset that is collected.

Day 4 - MT Inversions and Earth Models

Thursday, October 20th, 2022, 8am–5pm

8:00 am
5:00 pm
  • The theory and practice of inverting MT datasets
  • Examples datasets requiring of 1D, 2D, 3D inversions
  • Exercise - Inversions and forward modeling of an example 1D and 2D datasets

Day 4 of the MT short course will introduce participants to the theory and mechanics of MT inversions. Participants will have a chance to do inversions from an existing MT dataset.

Day 5 - Future Opportunities with MT

Friday, October 21st, 2022, 8–11am

8:00 am
11:00 am
  • How to interpret your results
  • Discussion of future opportunities in MT
  • Late morning dismissal

The final day of the MT short course will touch on data interpretation before wrapping up with a discussion of future opportunities in MT.

There are currently no materials available for download.

Material from agenda

    Notice The application period for this course closed on Wed, September 07, 2022 - 11:59:00 PM.

    Important Dates
  • Short Course Dates:
    Oct 17th – 21st
  • Registration:
    Aug 22nd – Sep 7th

    • Location
    New Mexico Tech