Patent ID: 8862440

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of predicting field noise due to ocean flow comprising the steps of: receiving a first observation point and surrounding earth magnetic field vectors; receiving ocean model data including ocean volume, ocean flow in the ocean volume, and ocean electrical properties in the ocean volume; generating a plurality of ocean cells within the ocean volume around the first observation point based on the ocean model data, the earth magnetic field vectors, the ocean flow, and the ocean electrical properties, each of the ocean cells having an ocean cell-specific ocean flow associated with the ocean cell and ocean cell-specific ocean electrical properties associated with the ocean cell; generating a tri-axial equivalent electrical current corresponding to each of the plurality of ocean cells based on the ocean cell-specific ocean flow associated with the ocean cell and the ocean cell-specific electrical properties associated with the ocean cell; generating a unit tri-axial electric bipole transmitter source corresponding to each of the plurality of ocean cells based on the ocean cell-specific ocean flow associated with the ocean cell and the ocean cell-specific electrical properties associated with the ocean cell; for each of the plurality of ocean cells, determining the magnetic field vectors and the electric field vectors based on the unit tri-axial electric bipole transmitter sources from each of the plurality of ocean cells to the first observation point; for each of the plurality of ocean cells, scaling the magnetic field vectors and the electric field vectors based on the corresponding tri-axial equivalent electric currents from the plurality of ocean cells; and generating a first magnetic field noise forecast and a first electric field noise forecast between the first observation point and the plurality of ocean cells based on a vector sum of magnetic field contributions from the scaled magnetic field vectors and a vector sum of electric field contributions from the scaled electric field vectors.