AEMInterpConvert – Geoscience Australia’s Online Airborne Electromagnetic Interpretation Conversion Tool

In recent years, Geoscience Australia, along with the state and territory geological surveys, have collected and processed vast amounts of airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data. With the acquisition of the AusAEM survey (Ley-Cooper et al., 2020) and the intention to collect large amounts of interpretation-specific metadata for the Estimates of Geological and Geophysical Surfaces database (EGGS; Mathews et al., 2020), an assessment was made on the available software capable of efficiently creating the intended interpretations. 

Shortcomings in existing applications prompted the development of a new interpretation workflow: the Multilayered chronostratigraphic airborne electromagnetic interpretation workflow (Wong et al., 2022). This workflow facilitates digitising the interpretation linework and attributing these lines with a wide range of interpretation-specific data. Development of this workflow prioritised accessibility by utilising widely-used Geographic Information Systems and open-source software. The conversion component can provide the interpretation outputs in a range of formats compatible with most applicable software packages. This conversion process also includes the production of interpretation aids prior to interpretation and to validate spatial, geometric and attribute data, post interpretation. 

The conversion component in this workflow was initially scripted in the AWK programming language, which is currently used in Geoscience Australia’s production Multilayered chronostratigraphic AEM interpretation workflow (Wong et al., 2022). This conversion process has been used to convert AEM interpretation from over 115,000 flight line km, covering mostly 20 km-spaced flight lines over an area of 2,085,000 km2 or 27% of the Australian continent (Connors et al., 2022; Folkes et al., 2022; Vilhena et al. 2023; Wong et al., 2020; Wong et al., 2021; Wong et al., 2023).

The AEMInterpConvert tool has been developed to improve accessibility and user-friendliness of the interpretation conversion component of the workflow. This tool allows users to produce the interpretation aids, run the validations and export interpretation in various formats without the need for any specialised software or programming experience. 

This document provides a metadata statement and user guide for the AEMInterpConvert’s online graphical user interface. Outputs from this tool are designed to support investigations of cover thicknesses and depths to basements for 3D geological modelling. These interpretations and models are in turn used to inform academia, industry and government on decision-making, land use, environmental management, hazard mapping and resource exploration.

Tags: AEM, AEMInterpConvert, AusAEM interpretation, Conversion Tool, Electrical and electromagnetic methods in geophysics, GUI, Geoscience data visualisation, Information extraction and fusion, Onshore National Geology, Published_External, RAPi, Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity, Stratigraphy (incl. biostratigraphy, Structural geology and tectonics, airborne electromagnetics, airborne electromagnetics interpretation, graphical user interface, sequence stratigraphy and basin analysis)
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data