Vehicle noise characteristics in magnetotelluric data and vehicle noise removal using waveform fitting

Magnetic field fluctuations due to vehicle noise were observed in magnetotelluric (MT) time-series data measured near roads. The observed vehicle noise had magnitudes ranging from tens to thousands of μA/m, whereas the observed weak natural MT signal magnitudes were approximately tens of μA/m. A small signal-to-noise ratio made it difficult to apply robust processing for removing vehicle noise. In addition, vehicle noise severely distorts the MT response in the MT deadband from 0.01 Hz to 0.3 Hz, where the MT signal is very weak, and methods to remove it are required for deep structure imaging. In this study, magnetic field fluctuations due to moving vehicles were simulated with a magnetic dipole and attempted to be removed using a waveform fitting method. A total of 378 vehicle noises were extracted from the near-road MT data and synthesized with the remote MT data without vehicle noises to investigate the effect of vehicle noise on the MT response. Removal of vehicle noise from synthesized remote MT data resulted in substantial restoration of the apparent resistivity and phase curves around the MT deadband and below 0.001 Hz. In the MT field data, the vehicle noise was simulated and removed with two moving dipoles; the magnitude of the remaining vehicle noise was reduced by approximately half compared to a single dipole, and very stable apparent resistivity and phase curves were obtained. Although electromagnetic noise distortion remains after vehicle noise removal, the waveform fitting method significantly improves the apparent resistivity and phase curve response in the 0.01–0.3 Hz frequency band.