f Magnetotelluric analysis in the wave number domain

Our study is an attempt to a scertain practical vertical and lateral resolution bounds with which geoelectric features in the subsurface can be resolved from lateral measurements of magnetotelluric (MT) fields. For this purpose, we have linearized the relationship between a perturbation in subsurface resistivity and the ensuing perturbation in the surface MT fields (Torres-Verdin and Bostick, 1990). Even though the linearized MT field solutions apply only to low-rontrast models, they hold for any geometrical complexity in the subsurface. In fact, the linear-system analysis yields a set of response equations than can be easily particularized to the cases of one-, two-, and three-dimensional (1-D, 2-D, and 3-D, respectively) subsurface resistivity distributions.