Abstract
Portable frequency domain electromagnetic devices, commonly known as terrain conductivity meters, have become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in locating underground utilities. Data collected using these devices, however, usually suffer from major problems such as complexity and interference of apparent conductivity anomalies, near edge local spikes, and fading of conductivity contrast between a utility and the surrounding soil. This study presents the experience of adopting the rolling ball algorithm, originally designed to remove background from medical images, to treat these major problems in terrain conductivity measurements. Applying the proposed procedure to data collected using different terrain conductivity meters at different locations and conditions proves the capability of the rolling ball algorithm to treat these data both efficiently and quickly. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.