Magnetic v ariogramdepth: tests on synthetic and real data

We investigate the accuracy and resolution of the variogram analysis method (Maus, 1999) on syn thetic and real data. Syn thetic magnetic ight line data are generated forbasemen t models of idealized geological setups. Comparing variogram depths of the data with true model depths shows that variogram depths are accurate and un biased as long as the data analysis window is larger than 10 times the depth to be estimated. However, basement features smaller than this window size are not resolv ed. We investigate the trade-o betw eenwindow size and lateral resolution by comparing variogram depth with drilled basement depth in the Kuiseb Dune Area, Namibia. For this di cult data set the optimum window size is more than 20 times the depth to be resolved. A provocative conclusion from our study is that one should consider ying survey lines in a regular mesh. This optimizes the retrieval of depth information per line km.