Airborne electromagnetic and magnetic survey near Coalinga and Pyramid Hills, California, 2022

Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) and magnetic survey data were collected during November 2022 over a total distance of 2,372 line kilometers over two study areas in the Pleasant Valley near the city of Coalinga, California and the region surrounding the Pyramid Hills. These data were collected adjacent to areas of oil and gas production in support of groundwater salinity mapping and hydrogeologic framework development as part of the U.S. Geological Survey California Oil, Gas, and Groundwater program and the California State Water Resources Control Board’s Oil and Gas Regional Monitoring Program. Data were acquired by SkyTEM ApS with the SkyTEM 312 time-domain helicopter-borne electromagnetic system together with a Geometrics G822A cesium vapor magnetometer. The survey was flown at a nominal flight height of 35 m above terrain along block-style lines with a nominal spacing of 300 m. Peripheral lines to the main survey blocks have variable spacing. The AEM typical maximum depth of investigation is between 150 and 350 m.

This data release includes minimally processed (raw) AEM and raw/processed magnetic data, fully processed AEM data used for resistivity model development, and laterally constrained inverted resistivity models. These data are provided in a netCDF format (CoalingaCA2022.nc) following the GSPy convention described by James and others (2022) and Foks and others (2022). Variables are described as headers within the netCDF file as well as in a text-formatted metadata file (CoalingaCA2022.ncml). The complete minimally processed data package received from the contractor is included in separate zip-file directory (CoalingaCA2022_ContractorsDataPackage.zip) and described in the contractor's report (CoalingaCA2022_SkyTEMApS_DataReport.pdf).

References cited:
Foks, N. L., James, S. R., and Minsley, B. J. (2022). GSPy: Geophysical data standard in Python. U.S. Geological Survey software release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9XNQVGQ
James SR, Foks NL and Minsley BJ (2022) GSPy: A new toolbox and data standard for Geophysical Datasets. Frontiers in Earth Science 10:907614. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2022.907614