This presentation reviews the growing role of electromagnetic methods in drone geophysics, showing how UAV platforms now support a broad range of EM techniques—from VLF, frequency-domain, and time-domain systems to natural-field methods—with investigation depths ranging from a few metres to more than one kilometre. It highlights how drone deployment improves flexibility, spatial resolution, and access in difficult terrain, and uses MobileMTd as a key example of an advanced UAV EM system: a broadband total-field AFMAG technology operating from about 15 Hz to 13 kHz that requires no active transmitter and combines a drone-borne magnetic receiver with a remote electric-field base station to generate rotationally invariant data for resistivity imaging. Field comparisons with heliborne MobileMT and ground EM demonstrate that MobileMTd can resolve both shallow and deep resistivity contrasts, including targets masked by conductive overburden, and can effectively detect mineralization-related structures in complex geological settings. Overall, the presentation shows that the convergence of multiple EM modalities on UAV platforms is creating flexible, sustainable, and high-resolution exploration workflows that extend and complement traditional airborne and ground geophysical methods.
If you’d like to set up an individual or group online presentation, send a message and we’ll coordinate a time (info@expertgeophysics.com)
