Mitigation of 50-60 Hz power line interference in geophysical data

Abstract

The analysis of ELF/VLF radio data has broad applications for ionospheric and magnetospheric phenomena, lightning activity, long-range communications, and geophysical prospecting. However, recordings of ELF/VLF data on the ground are adversely affected by the presence of electromagnetic fields from 50-60 Hz power lines, whose harmonics can extend to many kilohertz and interfere with the detection of natural and man-made signals. Removal of this interference is complicated by the time-varying fundamental frequency of power lines and strongly varying characteristics across different power grids. We discuss two methods for isolation and then subtraction of this interference, by an adaptive filtering technique and with least squares matrix analysis. Methods for estimating the time-varying frequency are also discussed. A few variants of these techniques are applied both to simulated data and then to real data. It is found that least squares isolation gives superior results, although the adaptive filter is potentially more effective for poorly behaved power line interference with rapidly changing fundamental frequencies as well as being computationally more efficient.