Electromagnetic Methods Research Consortium

Welcome to the Electromagnetic Methods Research Consortium website. Access to most content is restricted to consortium sponsors only.  See the About section below to learn more about the consortium and how to become a sponsor.

The Electromagnetic Methods Research Consortium (EMRC)  supports research in electromagnetic (EM) exploration methods at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) at Columbia University. Research topics include innovating and testing new survey methods, developing novel data processing, modeling and inversion codes, analysis of survey data sets, and advancing EM geophysical theory. The consortium supports the continued development and improvement of high performance computing applications for EM modeling of magnetotelluric (MT), controlled-source electromagnetic (CSEM) and transient electromagnetic (TEM) data for onshore and offshore exploration. Current research focuses on parallel adaptive finite element methods for 2D and 3D non-linear inversion of EM data and Bayesian inverse methods for quantifying non-linear uncertainty in inverse models. Software developed under consortium funding is distributed to sponsors under open-source licenses. Graduate students and postdocs supported by the consortium receive research training and mentoring at LDEO, gaining fundamental theoretical knowledge and industry-relevant practical skills that are valuable for future careers in industry, government labs and academia. Sponsors are invited to attend the annual consortium workshop at LDEO, where research presentations showcase consortium projects and software tutorials provide hands-on training. Presentations, paper preprints, software and training manuals are available through this members-only consortium website. The funding level is $25,000 per year with a two-year contract expected.

Contact:

Professor Kerry Key
+1 845 365-8604
kkey@ldeo.columbia.edu

Consortium funding supports the development of finite element modeling codes for electromagnetic geophysics. Unstructured meshes accurately represent realistic complex structural morphologies and automatic goal-oriented adaptive mesh refinement ensures accurate simulation results. Dual-level parallelism allows for efficient parallel scaling and fast calculations on large cluster computers.

Consortium sponsorship funds research in electromagnetic geophysical methods applied to solve exploration problems in diverse environments spanning from the deep ocean and continental shelves to onshore terrains and coastal regions where ground based, airborne and borehole techniques provide complementary information about subsurface properties.

The consortium is part of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, a research unit of Columbia University.

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory seeks fundamental knowledge about the origin, evolution and future of the natural world. Its scientists study the planet from its deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean, providing a rational basis for the difficult choices facing humanity.

The 157-acre Lamont campus is located in Palisades, New York, about 18 miles north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.