A robust method for computing vertical derivatives of potential fields using upward continuation data

AVertical derivatives play an important role in both qualitative and quantitative interpretations of potential fields. Nevertheless, the common methods are not stable in the presence of noise. In this study, I introduce a new method based on upward continuation data and Taylor series expansion to perform stable vertical derivatives. Unlike previous methods, the presented method uses only upward continuation data, which makes it less sensitive to noise while still providing vertical derivatives at the observed plane. The presented method is tested on both synthetic data and on field data from the Vredefort impact structure, South Africa. In the synthetic examples, the proposed method is more stable and accurate than other methods. In the real example, the findings show that the vertical derivatives computed by the proposed method are also more stable, and the use of these derivatives in the enhanced horizontal derivative (EHD) filter provides the linear structures more clearly than others.