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GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 68, NO. 6 (NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2003); P. 19171921, 5 FIGS.

10.1190/1.1635045

A new method for continuation of 3D potential fields to a horizontal plane

Shi-zhe Xu , Chieh-Hou Yang , Shikun Dai , and Dahai Zhang

kind. Pilkington and Urquhart (1990) determine an equivalent source on a mirror image of the observation surface. Xia
et al. (1993) develop a method using equivalent point sources in
the frequency domain. Ivan (1994) uses the equivalent source
method to upward-continue potential field data from a polyhedral surface. Typically, these methods solve a large set of linear
algebraic equations, taking a correspondingly large amount of
computer memory. In this paper we present a faster model
that does not require solving algebraic equations. It possesses
a high computation speed as well as reasonable accuracy. The
method can be used in cases involving vast data quantities, such
as aeromagnetic data processing.
Incidentally, the continuation of potential fields in magnetic
exploration is sometimes called terrain correction. But the
common calculation of terrain corrections for the Bouguer reduction of gravity data is not continuation.

ABSTRACT

A 3D potential on a 3D topography is approximately

regarded as a potential on an imaginary horizontal plane.
A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is applied to calculate the
outward normal derivative of the potential on the horizontal plane. An approximation can be made such that
the calculated derivative is used as the outward normal
derivative of the potential on the 3D topographic surface.
Based on the potential and the approximated normal
derivative on the topography, Greens formula is used to
obtain the potential at an arbitrary point above the topography. When the potential at a flat level above the topography is obtained, an FFT is used again to determine
the potential at other levels above the source of the
potential.
A model test shows that the results from this method
compare well with analytic solutions. The method has
high computation speed and can be used for continuation of 3D potential fields for large data sets, e.g., aeromagnetic data.

PRINCIPLE

The integral formula

Let 0s be the topographic surface and 0 the boundary at
infinity; 0s and 0 form a closed boundary of a source-free region (Figure 1). According to Greens formula, the potential
u p at an arbitrary point p in the region can be expressed by an
integral of the potential u and its outward normal derivative
u/n on the closed boundary:

INTRODUCTION

Gravity and magnetic data are usually measured on an irregular surface. Since most approaches available for quantitative analysis require data on a horizontal plane, it is desirable
to recalculate the measured data on a new horizontal plane,
which is called continuation (or reduction) of the potential
field. Among existing methods for continuation of 3D potential fields are the equivalent source method and the harmonic series method. Dampney (1969), Syberg (1972), and
Emilia (1973) determine an equivalent source by solving a system of linear equations. Henderson and Cordell (1971) discuss an approach to reduction by means of finite harmonic
series. Bhattacharyya and Chan (1977) calculate an equivalent
source by solving a Fredholm integral equation of the second

up =

d0,
u
n
n

I
0 S +0

(1)

where is the fundamental solution of the 3D Laplace equation

[ = 1/(4r )], with r being the distance from p to an arbitrary
point and n the outward normal at the boundary. Assume that
the field source is finite and is centered at point o (Figure 1).
Because the boundary 0 is far from o, the potential at 0 is
inversely proportional to the distance from o to the boundary,
i.e., on 0 the source appears as a point source, so it is easy
to prove that the integral over 0 is equal to zero (Xu, 2001).

Manuscript received by the Editor February 8, 2001; revised manuscript received March 2, 2003.

Zhejiang University, Department of Geosciences, Hangzhou 310027, China. E-mail: szxu@mail.hz.zj.cn.

Formerly National Central University, Institute of Applied Geology, Chungli, Taiwan; presently Ching Yun Institute of Technology, Taiwan. E-mail:
president@cyit.edu.tw.

Petroleum University, Department of Geosciences, Beijing 102200, China. E-mail: ddd505@sino.com.

c 2003 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.

1917


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Xu et al.

Finally, we have

up =
Z
=

u
0s

u
0s

d0
n
n

cos(r, n) u 1
+
d0,
4r 2
n 4r

(2)

where cos (r, n) is cosine of the angle between r and the outward
normal n to the boundary.
Equation (2) shows that if u and u/n on 0s are known, we
can obtain u above 0s using an integral method. In effect, however, only u on 0s is known, while u/n is unknown. Therefore,
the key to this problem is to determine u/n on 0s . We propose a fast approximate method for calculating u/n, which
is computationally much more efficient than solving a set of
linear algebraic equations.

allel to the z-axis, unlike normal to the terrain 0s . Thus, the

values of u/n on 0s obtained in this way are approximate.
If the terrain slope is larger than 30 , the greater error of the
approximate u/n will lead to a greater error of the continued values of u. Substituting the above into equation (2), we
can determine the potential u at an arbitrary point p above the
topography. The integral in equation (2) is calculated numerically.

Numerical integral
Divide the topography 0s into many small triangles 0e . The
integral over 0s in equation (2) can now be decomposed into
a sum of integrals over each triangle. At point p, equation (2)
is rewritten as

up =

0s

cos(r, n) u 1
+
d0.
u
4r 2
n 4r

XZ
0e

(4)

The normal derivative

Modeling (see below) indicates that, if the terrain slope is
less than 30 , we can use the following approximate method
to get the normal derivative. We approximately regard the 3D
potential u(x, y, z) as a potential on an imaginary horizontal
plane, z = constant. The vertical derivative u/z at the imaginary plane can be easily calculated using FFT. Let U (k x , k y , z)
be the Fourier transform of u(x, y, z):
U (k x , k y , z) = F[u(x, y, z)],

The integral over element 0e can be calculated easily using the

Gaussian numerical integration method (Xu, 2001).

Downward continuation
After u is thus obtained on a horizontal plane above the
topography, we can use a conventional FFT to downward continue u to another plane above the source of the potential.
MODEL TEST

where k x and k y are wavenumbers in the x- and y-directions

respectively. Therefore, the vertical derivative u/z on the
imaginary plane is given by

q
u
= F 1 k x2 + k 2y U (k x , k y , z) .
z

(3)

The value of u/z is irrelevant to the height of the imaginary

horizontal plane. Equation (3) takes little time to calculate on
a digital computer.
We can now approximate u/n at the surface 0s by taking
the value of u/z at the point with the same x and y on the
imaginary plane. For the plane z = constant, the normal is par-

FIG. 1. The region, boundary, and potential source.

Figure 2a shows the contours of an artificial circular hill with

a top height of 160 m at its peak and a maximum slope of
30 . Figure 2b shows the contours of the magnetic anomaly Z
on the topography, which is caused by a magnetic dipole located at cross-section BB0 (Figure 2f). The pattern of the magnetic anomaly in Figure 2b is distorted by the terrain. Because
Z = u/z and 2 u = 0, where u is the magnetic potential,
we have 2 Z = 0, where 2 is the 3D Laplacian. Thus, Z is a
potential field, and we can use the proposed method to correct
it for terrain. First, we obtain the normal derivative Z /n.
Figure 2c shows Z /n on the topography computed analytically. Figure 2d is the approximate Z /n calculated by the
proposed method. The contour patterns in Figures 2c and 2d
are very similar: Figure 2e gives the difference. The error near
the maximum Z /n is about 10%.
Using the proposed method, we continue the magnetic
anomaly Z at the topographic surface shown in Figure 2b to
a flat plane with a height of 180 m; the contours are shown
in Figure 3b. Figure 3a shows the analytic magnetic anomaly
Z on the same plane, and Figure 3c gives the difference between the analytic and the continued results. The error near
the maximum Z is about 4%.
We use conventional FFT to downward continue the magnetic anomaly Z . Curve A1 A01 in Figure 4a shows the topography along profile A A0 of Figure 2a, and the horizontal lines
A3 A03 (height = 180 m) and A2 A02 (height = 140 m) represent
the height of two planes to which the potential is to be continued. Figure 4d is the analytic value of field Z along A1 A01 .
Figure 4b shows the comparison between the analytic Z and the


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Continuation of 3D Potential

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FIG. 2. Comparison between analytic and approximate normal derivates of potential. (a) The contours (m) of an artificial circular
hill 160 m high with a maximum slope of 30 . (b) The contours (nT) of the magnetic anomaly Z on the topography, which is caused by
a magnetic dipole located at cross-section BB0 [see (f)]. (c) The analytic normal derivative Z /n (nT/m) on the topography. (d) The
approximate Z /n (nT/m) calculated by the proposed method. (e) The difference between the analytic and the approximate Z /n
(nT/m). (f) The location of the magnetic dipole.


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Xu et al.

FIG. 3. Comparison between the analytic Z and the continued Z . The magnetic dipole located at cross-section BB0 [see (f)]. (a) The
analytic magnetic anomaly Z (nT) at a plane at the 180-m level. (b) The continued magnetic anomaly Z (nT) at the same plane.
(c) The difference between the analytic Z and the continued Z (nT).

continued Z on A3 A03 . After the continued Z at the horizontal

plane A3 A03 is obtained, we use an FFT to downward continue
Z onto A2 A02 . Figure 4c shows the comparison between the
analytic Z and the continued Z along A2 A02 .
From the above test, we can see that the proposed terrain
correction method for 3D potential fields has a satisfactory
accuracy for practical purposes.

field to a plane of height 350 m, well above the hill crest

in the topography; Figure 5d shows the downward continuation of the magnetic field from the plane of 350 m to one
at 200 m. From Figures 5c and 5d, we can see that the patterns of the continued magnetic anomaly are more regular
than the original one in Figure 5b and therefore are easier to
interpret.

CASE STUDY

CONCLUSION

Figure 5 shows a real example of aeromagnetic data. The

flight altitude ranges from 26 to 340 m. Figure 5a shows
the contours of the flight altitude; Figure 5b shows the contours of the corresponding measured magnetic field T , which
is a potential field. Figure 5c shows the continued magnetic

As demonstrated by a model test and an aeromagnetic

application, the proposed method for terrain correction of 3D
potential fields has sufficient accuracy for practical purposes.
Since this method uses the FFT and does not require solution
of linear algebraic equations, it achieves high computational


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Continuation of 3D Potential

1921

speed. It takes about 30 s to continue 5000 potential values on a

Pentium III 500-MHz PC; therefore, this method is well suited
to terrain correction with large amounts of data, such as with
an aeromagnetic survey.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the Science and Technology Department

of Zhejiang province, China, for financial support during the
course of the work. In particular, we are grateful to the assistant editor, P. Docherty, and the associate editor, J. Peirce, for
their very useful suggestions which improved the clarity of this
paper.

REFERENCES

FIG. 4. Profile showing the results of upward and downward

continuation. (a) Curve A1 A01 is the topographic line along
profile A A0 (see Figure 3a), and the horizontal lines A3 A03
(height = 180 m) and A2 A02 (height = 140 m) represent the
height of two planes to which the potential is to be continued.
(b) The comparison between the analytic Z and the continued Z on A3 A03 . (c) The comparison between the analytic Z
and the continued Z on A2 A02 . (d) The analytic value of Z on
topographic line A1 A01 .

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Dampney, C. N. G., 1969, The equivalent source technique: Geophysics,
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Emilia, D. A., 1973, Equivalent sources used as an analytic base
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Henderson, R. G., and Cordell, L., 1971, Reduction of unevenly spaced
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Ivan, M., 1994, Upward continuation of potential field from a polyhedral surface: Geophys. Prosp., 42, 391404.
Pilkington, M., and Urquhart, W. E. S., 1990, Reduction of potential
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Xia, J., Sprowl, D. R., and Adkins-Heljeson, D., 1993, Correction of
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FIG. 5. Case studyterrain correction of aeromagnetic data. (a) The contours of the flight altitude (m). (b) The magnetic anomaly
T (nT) measured at the flight altitude. (c) The magnetic anomaly T (nT) continued from (b) to the plane with height = 350 m.
(d)The magnetic anomaly (nT) continued from (c) to the plane with height = 200 m.