Development of new quantitative interpretation techniques for applied geophysics.

地球物理学的目标是理解，也许是预测，移动和塑造我们脚下地球的动态过程，并“观察”地球，看到这些过程的作用，或者它们的后果。“看”的过程通常包括构建一个模型，尽我们最大的知识和能力，模拟真实的地球地下。模型构建过程包括自动更新远景模型的参数，以便为模型计算的合成地球物理调查数据与地球物理调查中实际获得的数据相匹配。这个过程被称为反转。反演程序包括两个主要部分：计算给定地球模型合成数据的计算程序，以及连续更新模型参数的算法。提出的研究决定(i)改进计算机程序用于合成实际复杂地球模型的地球物理调查数据的数学，以及（ii）改进用于反演地球物理数据的算法。最近的进展已经产生了第一代完全三维地球模型的程序。然而，这些程序用于地下岩石类型排列的数学表示是基本的，既不够灵活，无法处理自然界中发生的复杂结构，也不够精确，无法处理相邻岩石类型之间的巨大变化，而这些变化可能存在于某些重要特征，如矿床。本研究计划将研究使用更复杂和更精细的地下表示来克服这些问题。结果将是计算机程序可以提供更详细、更可靠的地下模型或“图像”。将取得的进展将适用于地球物理学的大多数领域。不过，拟议研究的主要考虑范围将是矿物勘探。

The goal of geophysics is to understand, and perhaps predict, the dynamic processes that move and shape the Earth beneath our feet, and to "look" into the Earth to see these processes in action, or their consequences. The process of "looking" generally involves the construction of a model that resembles, to the best of our knowledge and abilities, the true subsurface of the Earth. The model construction procedure involves updating automatically the parameters of a prospective model such that synthetic geophysical survey data computed for the model match the data that were actually acquired in geophysical surveys. This procedure is referred to as inversion. Inversion routines comprise two main components: a computational procedure for calculating synthetic data for a given Earth model, and an algorithm for successively updating the parameters of the model. The proposed research determines to (i) improve the mathematics used by computer programs to synthesize geophysical survey data for realistically complex Earth models, and (ii) improve the algorithms used to invert geophysical data. Recent advances have produced what is effectively the first generation of these programs for fully three-dimensional models of the Earth. However, the mathematical representations these programs use for the arrangements of rock types in the subsurface are basic, being neither flexible enough to cope with the complicated structures that occur in nature, nor precise enough to handle the dramatic changes between adjacent rock types that can exist for certain important features such as ore deposits. This research programme will investigate the use of more sophisticated and refined representations of the subsurface to overcome these problems. The result will be computer programs that can provide more detailed and more reliable models, or "images", of the subsurface. The advancements that will be made will be applicable to most areas of geophysics. However, the main context considered for the proposed research will be mineral exploration.