Closing the gap between ground and airborne IP data modelling

Modelling of Induced Polarization in AEM data (AIP) has recently been used more often in exploration. Which demands for more research to address the fundamental question 'how does AIP compare to ground IP?'. Beside some of the well-known differences in terms of, e.g., frequencies deployed and expected to be recoverable or depth of investigation, one recurring issue hampering the comparison is the use of different modelling approaches for ground versus IP. Reconciling them is the first step to address the question above. To that effect, we use TEM data together with full-decay time-domain ground IP data and we adopt the same Cole Cole modelling for both. We produce a suite of simple synthetic examples that illustrate the sensitivity of the two methods to the Cole-Cole spectral parameters and their potential complementarity. The results suggest that ground and airborne IP data can be modelled with the same approach, providing a much more robust IP model, based on their combined influence. Morevover, AIP can help designing more efficient (faster, cheaper, less risky) ground IP surveys, without compromising, often improving, the accuracy of the final output models.