Aims and scope

Near Surface Geophysics is an international journal for the publication of research and development in geophysics applied to near surface. It places emphasis on geological, hydrogeological, geotechnical, environmental, engineering, mining, archaeological, agricultural and other applications of geophysics as well as physical soil and rock properties. Geophysical and geoscientific case histories with innovative use of geophysical techniques are welcome, which may include improvements on instrumentation, measurements, data acquisition and processing, modelling, inversion, interpretation, project management and multidisciplinary use. The papers should also be understandable to those who use geophysical data but are not necessarily geophysicists.

Impact Factor 2010: 0.989

Near Surface Geophysics is indexed/abstracted in the Current Contents/ Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences, ISI Alerting Service and Science Citation Index Expanded.

Near Surface Geophysics is published 6 times a year.

Near Surface Geophysics is this year’s impact star

EAGE journals have had another good year in terms of professional recognition highlighted by Near Surface Geophysics which scored its highest Journal Impact Factor (JIF) ever of 0.989 in 2010.

The JIF, published by the end of June in the annual Journal Citations Reports by Thomson Reuters, is viewed as a key measure of the importance and recognition of a journal in its field of expertise. It is calculated based on a three-year period and consist of the average number of citations to papers up to two years after their publication.

Near Surface Geophysics published its first issue in 2003 and has grown relatively fast in the last couple of years through an increase in the number of submitted and accepted papers. The jour­nal has recently published large special issues on Hydrogeophysics (2009) and Student-based Research (2010) while also continuing to publish special issues related to ground-penetrating radar. This could have influenced this year’s high JIF score. Near Surface Geophysics, although a smaller and younger journal within the EAGE, is now well estab­lished and can be considered leading in the near surface field of geophysics.

The other journals in the EAGE portfolio also continue to do well. For 2010 Geophysical Prospecting scored a respectable 1.493, slightly down from its record score of 1.772 in 2009. However, it remains ahead of its main competitor Geophysics (1.404 in 2010) for a second consecutive year. Petroleum Geoscience continued its growth with a 1.294 (1.220 in 2009) and Basin Research went up from 2.161 in 2009 to 2.264.

(This article is published in First Break September 2011)

Advanced methods and modelling for GPR applications feature in Near Surface Geophysics

The June 2011 issue of Near Surface Geophysics features a special issue on advanced methods and modeling for ground penetrating radar (GPR) applications. Guest-edited by Lorenzo Crocco and Evert Slob, the issue contains six papers that were originally presented in a shorter form at the 5^th International Workshop on Advanced Ground Penetrating Radar (IWAGPR 2009), which was held in Granada, Spain on 27–29 May 2009. The workshop is the continuation of a biennial series of international scientific symposia organized by the Delft University of Technology from 2001–2005 and by the Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment of the National Research Council of Italy in 2007. In 2009, the workshop was organized by the electromagnetic waves group of the University of Granada and chaired by Prof. Rafael Gómez Martín.

One of the ideas that inspired the IWAGPR workshop series was to create a platform for scholars, practitioners, and users, where they could discuss the most recent developments in the field of GPR, with particular attention to the technical aspects of antennas, systems, data processing methodologies, and modelling, as well as addressing both the state-of-the-art and perspectives on such a technology.

IWAGPR 2009 was intended to put a specific emphasis on those advancements and topics, which are key to providing significant development of the GPR technology and pushing its scientific and commercial growth. The first aspect is accurate and efficient numerical modelling of propagation and scattering of electromagnetic waves for GPR, whereas the second aspect is the development of reconstruction/imaging algorithms capable of providing detailed information on the probed underground scenario. Addressing these topics is crucial for achieving improved performance of GPR surveys, especially for 3D surveys, which practitioners nowadays increasingly demand. This is especially clear when looking at emerging or added value GPR applications, such as hydrogeophysics, forensics, pollutant detection, and planetary exploration, where it is necessary to have imaging and processing tools capable of dealing with complex scenarios and deploying results which are increasingly independent of the subjective interpretation of the end-user.

Some of the presenters who had contributed to the workshop were invited to submit full-length papers for the special issue, which is intended to be representative of the most recent and possibly the more interesting advancements in this context. The first two papers are devoted to the accurate and efficient numerical modelling of electromagnetic wave propagation associated with GPR. Another paper describes a method for the estimation of the complex permittivity of the inspected medium, which is a crucial issue in GPR data processing and interpretation. The final three papers describe GPR data processing methodologies exploiting model-based inversion and their adoption in particularly interesting applications.

The next IWAGPR meeting will be organized by Jan van der Kruk, Klaus Reicherter and Sébastien Lambot and is to be held in Aachen, Germany, hosted by RWTH Aachen University from 22–24 June 2011.

(This article is published in First Break June 2011)

Advances in magnetic resonance technology highlighted in Near Surface Geophysics

The April 2011 issue of Near Surface Geophysics (Vol. 9, No. 2) features a special issue on the advances in mag­netic resonance technology, guest-edited by Anatoly Legchenko, Juan Plata, and Ugur Yaramanci. It contains a selection of papers derived from the 4th Workshop on Magnetic Resonance Sounding, which took place in Grenoble, France from 20–23 October 2009. This collection rep­resents the state of art of the method in a concise and linked manner. The papers address the theoretical basis and consid­erations of magnetic resonance sounding (MRS) as well as practical issues and experiences in the application of MRS in various hydrogeological setups and in different geographical regions.

The very first magnetic resonance soundings were carried out in Russia (for­mer USSR) from 1979–1981. Since 1982, MRS has been tested in different geologi­cal settings and in different countries. In Russia, it was used for practical purposes. Since 1996, when a new generation of MRS equipment became commercially available, the number of MRS users has continued to increase. The advent of this new geophysical method initiated inten­sive scientific discussions and exchanges of experience. Besides the traditional geophysical meetings, these exchanges were channelled through specialized workshops in Berlin, Germany (1999), Orléans, France (2003), Madrid, Spain (2006), and Grenoble, France (2009).

While the efficiency of the MRS method applied to groundwater-related studies is already proven, many technical details are still under development. The stage has already been reached where MRS can be used not only for sounding whilst assuming horizontal layering, i.e., only vertical variation in the structure as 1D, but also 2D and 3D variations. A new generation of hardware and continu­ously progressing software is expected to improve the accuracy and robustness of the technique. Thus, MRS workshops continue to contribute to the develop­ment of the method and establish new scientific collaborations.

The first three MRS workshops yielded special issues that documented the latest developments. Comparing these shows how many of the improvements identified as required either have been realized or are still in need of further attention. The MRS community continues the established tradition of summarizing and publishing the major results reported during the meetings.

The next workshop for MRS is planned for October–November 2012 in Hannover, Germany and the hope is that interest in the method will continue to attract more interest, thus contributing to the development of the method.

MRS has been developed by an international community; which causes a variety of names for this method. While the name surface nuclear mag­netic resonance (SNMR) is still used by some, there is some consensus emerging with regard to a change in nomencla­ture, for example, it is proposed to refer in future to MRS for 1D imple­mentation. A more sophisticated but also more time- and labour-consuming technique designed for 2D and 3D investigations will be called magnetic resonance tomography (MRT). Thus, MRS is aligned with already recog­nized geophysical techniques like, for instance, electrical resistivity tomogra­phy (ERT).

(This article is published in First Break April 2011)