This 5-day course will provide instruction in basic Magnetotelluric (MT) theory and application, including hands-on experience with magnetotelluric (MT) instruments managed by the EarthScope Primary Instrument Center (EPIC) and the evolving landscape of software tools for developing research products with MT datasets. The short course will combine field demonstrations, lectures, guided exercises, and group discussion. Instruction and training will be provided by EPIC technical staff and experts from the MT science community. We welcome participants from a variety of backgrounds and career stages (graduate student and beyond), and are especially keen to engage potential future users of EPIC facility portable MT instrument pool. Course enrollment will be capped at around 15 attendees.

Funding to attend is available for individuals currently based at a U.S. academic institutions and for U.S. citizens doing research work abroad, and will support costs related to domestic travel, room, and board. 

Applications to participate are now closed. Review of applications and participant selection will begin September 16th. Notification regarding the status of your application will be provided by September 23rd.

Participants should plan to arrive on Sunday, October 27 by late afternoon and depart after midday on Friday, November 1.  We will work with accepted participants to arrange travel to and from Albuquerque, NM.

Learning Objectives

• After participating in the course, attendees should be able to describe the fundamental principles of magnetotelluric (MT) theory, field techniques, and the importance of proper station deployment in geophysical surveys.
• After participating in the course, attendees should be able to interpret the relationship between MT survey design and the quality of collected data, adjusting field techniques and instrumentation setups to meet specific geophysical objectives.
• After participating in the course, attendees should be able to explain the fundamentals of MT inversion and understand the necessary tools and resources to successfully invert their own MT data.
• After participating in the course, attendees should be able to apply open-source MT software, such as Aurora, MTpy, and SimPEG, to archive, process, and model MT data.
• After participating in the course, attendees should be able to utilize MT data inversion results to visualize sub-surface conductivity models for geophysical investigations and have some understanding of how they are incorporated into various Earth Science investigations.

Participant Commitment

• 5 days, with field work on day 1 followed by lab and lecture on days 2-5.
• Daily sessions are 8 hours long
• Willingness to travel on Sunday (10/27) and Friday (11/1)

Prerequisites, Computer and Data

• Graduate student status or equivalent past experience, in the geosciences or a related field
• Knowledge of Linux command line and Python is preferred, but not essential
• A modern (<5 years old) laptop computer capable of accessing the internet
• Able to elucidate the research need, or other need, for taking the course in writing

Brief Agenda

Monday, October 28	Introduction to MT theory and instrumentation
Tuesday, October 29	MT data, data formats, software, and data processing
Wednesday, October 30	MT dataset explorations
Thursday, October 31	MT inversions and Earth models
Friday, November 1	Future opportunities with MT and wrap-up

Assessment

Attendees will demonstrate the learning goals by responding to surveys and quizzes before, during, and after the short course.

Instructors

• Paul Bedrosian, U.S. Geological Survey
• Seogi Kang, Stanford University
• Karl Kappler, Kappler & Associates
• Michael Mitchell, U.S. Geological Survey postdoc
• Jared Peacock, U.S. Geological Survey