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AGU: Water Resources Research

 

Index Terms

  • Exploration Geophysics: Data processing
  • Exploration Geophysics: Downhole methods
  • Hydrology: Groundwater hydrology
  • Hydrology: Groundwater transport
  • Hydrology: Instruments and techniques
Abstract
Cited By (25)
 

Abstract

Time-lapse imaging of saline-tracer transport in fractured rock using difference-attenuation radar tomography

Frederick D. Day-Lewis

Department of Geology, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, USA

On leave at the Office of Ground Water, Branch of Geophysics, U.S. Geological Survey, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

John W. Lane Jr.

Office of Ground Water, Branch of Geophysics, U.S. Geological Survey, Storrs, Connecticut, USA

Jerry M. Harris

Department of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

Steven M. Gorelick

Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Braun Geology Corner, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

Accurate characterization of fractured-rock aquifer heterogeneity remains one of the most challenging and important problems in groundwater hydrology. We demonstrate a promising strategy to identify preferential flow paths in fractured rock using a combination of geophysical monitoring and conventional hydrogeologic tests. Cross-well difference-attenuation ground-penetrating radar was used to monitor saline-tracer migration in an experiment at the U.S. Geological Survey Fractured Rock Hydrology Research Site in Grafton County, New Hampshire. Radar data sets were collected every 10 min in three adjoining planes for 5 hours during each of 12 tracer tests. An innovative inversion method accounts for data acquisition times and temporal changes in attenuation during data collection. The inverse algorithm minimizes a combination of two functions. The first is the sum of weighted squared data residuals. Second is a measure of solution complexity based on an a priori space-time covariance function, subject to constraints that limit radar-attenuation changes to regions of the tomograms traversed by high difference-attenuation ray paths. The time series of tomograms indicate relative tracer concentrations and tracer arrival times in the image planes; from these we infer the presence and location of a preferential flow path within a previously identified zone of transmissive fractures. These results provide new insights into solute channeling and the nature of aquifer heterogeneity at the site.

Received 17 September 2002; accepted 28 July 2003; published 18 October 2003.

Citation: Day-Lewis, F. D., J. W. Lane Jr., J. M. Harris, and S. M. Gorelick (2003), Time-lapse imaging of saline-tracer transport in fractured rock using difference-attenuation radar tomography, Water Resour. Res., 39(10), 1290, doi:10.1029/2002WR001722.

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