Computers & Geosciences Vol. 23, No. 10, pp.

10351038, 1997
# 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Printed in Great Britain
PII: S0098-3004(97)00089-7 0098-3004/98 $19.00 + 0.00

A FORTRAN 77 PROGRAM FOR COMPUTING

MAGNETOTELLURIC RESPONSE OVER A STRATIFIED
EARTH WITH CHANGING MAGNETIC PERMEABILITY
G. S. YADAV, and T. LAL
Department of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India

(Received 4 January 1996; revised 13 March 1997)

AbstractThe solution of the one-dimensional magnetotelluric problem for a multi-layered earth with
varying magnetic permeability has been obtained in the form of a 2  2 matrix by considering appropri-
ate boundary conditions. A Fortran 77 computer program for the computations of apparent resistivity
and phase has been presented. The applicability of the program is demonstrated by computing magne-
totelluric response over a three-layered earth model having variable magnetic permeability. # 1998
Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Key Words: Magnetotelluric, Magnetic permeability.

INTRODUCTION surface of the layered earth containing a magnetized

The increasing popularity of the magnetotelluric
(MT) method has led to scores of contributions to
its interpretational theory, to quote a few Yungul
(1961), Rankins and Reddy (1969), Kunetz (1972),
Patella (1976), Jupp and Vozo (1977), Jones and
Vozo (1978), Larsen (1981), Park, Orange, and
Madden (1983), Wannamaker, Hohmann, and
Ward (1984), Bahr (1988), Torres-Verdin and
Bostick (1992), and Bahr (1993). In the interpret-
ation of MT sounding data over a stratied earth,
frequently the assumption is made to take the free
space value of the magnetic permeability of the
layer without considering any change. However, in
regions covered with extensive basalt ows like
Deccan traps of India, Columbia river plateau of
U.S.A., Parana basin of Brazil which contain mag-
netized basaltic lava ows with varying percentage
of magnetite, magnetic permeability exceeds the free
space value. Yadav and Lal (1989) have presented
the eect of magnetic permeability on MT response
considering the multilayered earth model.
The processed MT sounding data in the form of
apparent resistivity and phase curves are usually
interpreted by employing inversion techniques. One
of the rst steps required for the inversion is to
compute the MT response over a layered earth with
some ``initial guess'' values of layer parameters.
Evidently, a computer program is desirable that
should enable one to compute the forward problem
of MT sounding for a layered earth containing a
magnetized layer.
In this paper, a computer program in
FORTRAN-77 is described for computing MT
apparent resistivity and the phase response on the
1035
layer. The code is based on the solution obtained in
the form of a 2  2 matrix by considering appropri-
ate boundary conditions. An example is presented
to demonstrate the applicability of the program.
The code is available by anonymous ftp from
ftp.iamg.org, or via internet at www.iamg.org.
FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM
Let us consider an n-layered earth model (Fig. 1)
having resistivities, rm; magnetic permeabilities,
mm=mrm
m0 (mrm being relative magnetic permeabil-
ities and m0, the free space permeability), layer
thicknesses, hm and corresponding depths, zm where
m = 1, 2,... n; hm and zm tends to innity for the
bottom-most half-space. It is well known that for
plane waves with time dependence exp(iot) nor-
mally incident on a layered earth, the horizontal
electric eld component satises the eld equation
in each layer which has been given by various
authors, for example Keller and Frischknecht
(1966, pp. 243248), Porstendorfer (1975, pp. 19
26), Patra and Mallick (1980), Kumar (1982), and
Yadav and Lal (1989). The solution of the eld
equations for the electric eld, Ex, and the associ-
ated magnetic eld, Hy, in each layer is obtained to
dene the wave impedance, Z, as a ratio of Ex and
Hy which becomes
 
Ex io m Aekz Bekz
Z 1
Hy k Aekz Bekz
with k2=ioms, o= 2pf and s= 1/r, and where k is
the propagation constant (the displacement currents
are neglected), s is the conductivity, A and B are
1036 G. S. Yadav and T. Lal

y where
0 1
um 1
0 (air) B pm vm qm
um vm C
(0,0,0) x Cm B
@
C 5a
h 1, 1, 1
z=z1 vm A
h 2, 2, 2 qm um vm pm
z=z2 um

pm sm =mm 1=2 sm1 =mm1 1=2 5b

qm sm =mm 1=2 sm1 =mm1 1=2 5c

hm+1, m, m
z=zm
hm+1, m+1, m+1
z=zm+1 um ekm1 zm and 5d

vm ekm1 zm 5e
z=zn-2
hn-1, n-1, n-1 Similarly, for zm=zm+1, one can write
z=zn-1
h n, n, n    
z=zn Am1 Cm1 Am2
z  1=2 B : 6
Bm1 2 sm1 =mm1 m2

=0, r
Considering all the interfaces, Equation (5) can
Figure 1. Stratied earth model showing notations for var- be rewritten as
ious layer parameters. m, mr and m0 are magnetic per-    
meability, relative magnetic permeability and free-space Am Cm Cm1


Cn1 An
 1=2 B : 7
magnetic permeability, respectively. Bm s s
m m1


s n1 n
2nm
mm mm1


mn1
the coecients, and other terms are dened earlier.
The impedance, Z0 at the surface of the earth As the solution must remain nite as z tends to
(z = 0) is written as innity, the coecient Bn (for the bottom-most
  semi-innite media) can be assumed to be equal to
io m1 A1 B1
Z 2 zero. Now the expressions for A1 and B1 can be
k1 A 1 B 1
written as
where sux 1 refers to the rst layer.    
The coecients A1 and B1 can be evaluated by A1 Y
n1
1
S1 Cm 8
considering the boundary conditions which require B1 m1
0
the continuity of tangential components of electric
and magnetic elds at the interfaces. At z = zm, we where
get the equations An
S1  1=2 A constant:
Exm Exm1 and Hym Hym1 s1 s2


sn1
2n1
m1 m2


mn1
or,
Am ekm zm Bm ekm zm Am1 ekm1 zm Although the coecients A1 and B1 can be com-
puted using Eq. (8), the equation is not in a con-
Bm1 ekm1 zm 3 venient form. The form can be improved by
factorizing matrix Cm into
and
 1=2 Cm Vm Qm Um 9
sm  km zm km zm

Am e Bm e where
mm
 
 1=2 1=vm 0
  Vm 9a
sm1 0 vm
Am1 ekm1 zm Bm1 ekm1 zm : 4
mm1
 
pm qm
From these equations, the solution for the coe- Qm 9b
qm pm
cients Am and Bm can be written in matrix notation
as and
     
Am Cm Am1 um 0
 1=2 B 5 Um : 9c
Bm 2 sm =m m1 0 1=um
m
 A FORTRAN 77 program for computing magnetotelluric response 1037

Therefore, 1
ra jZ0 j2 : 15
Y
n1 o m0
Cm V1 Q1 U1 V2 Q2 U2


Vn1 Qn1 Un1
m1 Substituting Equation (14) into Equation (15)
and simplifying leads to
U 1
0 U0 V1 Q1 U1 V2 Q2


Un2 Vn1 Qn1 Un1  
 C11 C21 2
ra r1 mr1   16
C11 C21 
Y
n1
U 1
0 Um1 Vm Qm Un1 and the phase is expressed as
m1  
ImagZ0
f tan1 : 17
Y
n1 RealZ0
1
U 0 Rm Un1
m1 Equations (16) and (17) can be used to compute
the apparent resistivity and phase with time over
where
the desired multi-layered magnetized earth model.
0 um1 um1 1
pm qm
B vm vm C
Rm @ vm vm A:
qm pm COMPUTER PROGRAM
um1 um1
Based on the above formulation, a computer pro-
Using Equations (5d) and (5e), it can be seen gram was written in FORTRAN-77. The source
that code is available by anonymous FTP from
um1 vm FTP.IAMG.ORG, or via internet at
ekm hm , ekm hm and U 1
0 1: WWW.IAMG.ORG. The variables used for layer
vm um1
parameters are dimensioned so that the input par-
ameters can take up to fteen layers, and the MT
Therefore, Equation (8) nally becomes response is obtainable for a maximum of 100 dier-
    ent values of the period. The dimensions of the
A1 Y
n1
1 variables can be changed, if required. The value of
Un1 S1 Rm 11
B1 m1
0 the magnetic permeability is taken as a relative
value with respect to the free space value, that is,
where mrm=mm/m0 where mm is the permeability of the
  layers, mrm is the relative permeability and m0 is con-
pm ekm hm qm ekm hm
Rm 12 sidered to be free-space value, that is, 4p107. The
qm ekm hm pm ekm hm
values of resistivity and thickness for each layer
and

Un1 ekn zn1 :

.
Q
As the matrix product n1 m1 Rm is a 2  2 matrix,
the nal result of this product can be written as
 
d11 d12
: 13
d21 d22

Then, using Equations (11) and (13), Equation (2)

takes the following form
 
io m1 d11 d21
Z0 : 14
k1 d11 d21

Equation (14) represents the impedance on the

surface of the earth which has a simple compu-
tational form and involves only an operation of
product of matrices Rm. Matrix Rm is a simple 2  2
matrix as given in Equation (12). The apparent res-
Figure 2. Example showing (A) apparent resistivity and
istivity, ra and phase retardation, f of Hy with (B) phase response obtained from the MTSPERM pro-
respect to Ex can easily be obtained as gram for model with characteristics shown in Table 1.
1038 G. S. Yadav and T. Lal
Table 1. Model characteristics
Layer Relative mag. permeability
i mr
1 1.0
2 mr2
3 1.0
must only be given in units of ohm metres and kilo-
metres, respectively.
AN EXAMPLE OF MT RESPONSE
Using the computer program, apparent resistivity
and phase responses for a three-layered earth model
containing a magnetized layer have been computed
and presented in Figure 2A and B and Table 1. In
this example, the second layer is assumed to be
magnetized having relative magnetic permeabilities
as 1.2 and 1.5 with resistivity 100 O m and thickness
1 km. The resistivity and thickness of the unmagne-
tized surface layer is assumed to be 20 O m and
0.02 km, respectively, and the resistivity of the last
layer (unmagnetized and extending to an innite
depth) is assumed to be 1000 O m. One such curve
is also prepared for the unmagnetized model to
show the relationship between magnetized and
unmagnetized models.
AcknowledgmentsFacilities provided by the Department
of Geophysics, Banaras Hindu University are thankfully
acknowledged.
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