The CHAOS-X Model and Uncertainty Values for Magnetic Directional Surveying

The Earth's magnetic field provides a unique natural source of orientation information that is particularly useful for subsurface magnetic measurement-while-drilling (MWD) navigation. In order to utilize the MWD magnetic field measurements for calculating the orientation of the bottom hole assembly (BHA), an accurate geomagnetic reference model is needed for comparison. In this paper we present the CHAOS-X model, a new geomagnetic reference model that provides global vector field estimates of Earth's magnetic field, with high resolution in both space and time, for precision magnetic directional surveying applications.
The model is derived from more than one million satellite and ground-based observatory magnetic measurements and consists of modules representing internal sources (in the Earth's core and crust), mag-netospheric sources, and ionospheric sources. Compared with previous reference models, the CHAOS-X model is particularly designed for better characterization of the time variations in the geomagnetic field. In this paper, we describe the model and present benchmark comparisons with magnetic observatory data to establish the uncertainty values required in models of wellbore positional errors in magnetic directional surveying applications.
The discrepancy between geomagnetic measurements and reference models are typically dominated by spatial variations caused by local geology. In applications requiring high accuracy, these variations can be taken into account by using a dedicated local model. In such cases, when the errors associated with local geology is small, our results show that the CHAOS-X reference model may yield a significant improvement compared with existing reference models. This result holds both when the model is used predictively and retrospectively. We also argue that using a model with an accurate description of the time variations improves recent magnetic surveys while drilling, since the description of the rapid time variations can be updated near real-time.
Copyright: Society of Petroleum Engineers