DEXP: A FAST METHOD TO DETERMINE THE DEPTH TO THE SOURCES OF POTENTIAL FIELDS

Summary A new method is described to determine the depth to sources of potential fields. The theory is here developed for sources such as poles or dipoles, but it may be extended to lines of poles, line masses, lines of dipoles, dykes, ribbons and so on. The field is scaled at several altitudes following a specific law analytically determined. The depth to the source is finally obtained by determining the scaled field extreme points. The method is fast and stable. It may be applied to any vertical derivative of a Newtonian potential, by using theoretically determined scaling functions for each order of derivative.