IGUG: A MATLAB package for $3$D inversion of gravity data using graph theory

TL;DR

The paper introduces IGUG, an open-source MATLAB package for 3D gravity data inversion using graph theory, combining point mass modeling, minimum spanning trees, and genetic algorithms for efficient subsurface imaging.

Contribution

It presents a novel MATLAB implementation of gravity inversion based on graph theory and a new diagnostic method for selecting regularization parameters.

Findings

Demonstrates efficiency and effectiveness through synthetic examples.

Verifies that model parameter constraints are non-restrictive.

Successfully applies to real gravity data from Quebec, Canada.

Abstract

The open source MATLAB package IGUG for 3D inversion of gravity data is presented. It is based on methodology that was introduced by Bijani et al (2015), in which a homogeneous subsurface body is modeled by an ensemble of simple point masses. The model parameters are the Cartesian coordinates of the point masses and their total mass. Associating the point masses to the vertices of a weighted full graph with weights computed by the Euclidean pairwise distances separating vertices, Kruskal's algorithm is used to find the minimum spanning tree of the graph. Stabilization is achieved using an equidistance function that restricts the spatial distribution of the masses and favors a homogeneous subsurface structure. A regularization parameter $\lambda$ is introduced to balance the two terms of the objective function, and reasonable physically-relevant bound constraints are imposed on the model parameters. Then the bound constrained objective function is solved using a genetic algorithm. A new diagnostic approach is presented for determining a suitable choice for $\lambda$, requiring a limited number of solutions for a small set of $\lambda$ without using the L-curve as suggested by Bijani et al. Simulations for synthetic examples demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of the algorithm. It is verified that the constraints on the model parameters are not restrictive. Included in the package is the script GMD.m which is used for generating synthetic data and for putting measurement data in the format required for the inversion implemented by IGUG.m The script Diagnostic_Results.m is included for analyzing and visualizing the results. The software can be used to verify the simulations and the analysis of real data that is presented here, The real data set uses gravity data from the Mobrun ore body, north east of Noranda, Quebec, Canada.