Edge enhancement of potential-field data using normalized statistics

Edge enhancement in potential-field data helps geologic interpretation. There are many methods for enhancing edges, most of which are high-pass filters based on the horizontal or vertical derivatives of the field. Normalized standard deviation (NSTD), a new edge-detection filter, is based on ratios of the windowed standard deviation of derivatives of the field. NSTD is demonstrated using aeromagnetic data from Australia and gravity data from South Africa. Compared with other filters, the NSTD filter produces more detailed results.