Co-operative inversion of geoelectrical data sets acquired from different electrode arrays

Summary Direct current resistivity (DCR) method is one of the most commonly applied geophysical exploration methods. The development of data acquisition techniques enables the acquisition of multiple data sets of various electrode arrays with a little extra measurement time in comparison with the time that needs to install the system. Accordingly, the data processor is required to utilise as much as possible useful information to build a more reliable geoelectrical model. This study aims to test using the co-operative inversion process to the multiple data sets of various electrode configurations. We use a synthetic model with the most common electrode arrays: Wenner-Schlumberger (WS), Dipole-Dipole (DD), Pole-Dipole (PD) and Pole-Pole to investigate the possibility of the co-operative inversion schemes. The results show that the co-operative inversion of the combined data sets is better than the inversion of the individual ones. The order of inversion for each data set can produce different results. Fuzzy c-means constraint may assist the inversion to produce better results.