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https://github.com/fatiando/2023-image

Abstract for IMAGE 2023
https://github.com/fatiando/2023-image

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Abstract for IMAGE 2023

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README 

          
# Fatiando a Terra: open-source tools for geophysics



[Agustina Pesce](https://aguspesce.github.io) and

[Santiago Soler](https://www.santisoler.com)



## Information



| Information | |

|--|--|

| Event: | [International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy (IMAGE) 2023](https://www.imageevent.org) |

| When? | 30 August, 2023 |

| Where? | Houston, Texas at the George R. Brown Convention Center |

| Session: | Mining and Mineral Exploration |

| Slides: | [Download slides as PDF](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fatiando/2023-image/main/slides.pdf) |



![Agustina giving the talk with a screen showing the Fatiando

libraries](photo.jpg)



## Abstract



### Objectives/Scope



Fatiando a Terra is a community-driven project with the goal of providing

open-source Python tools for geophysics that are well tested, well documented

and easy to use.

Their open-source license allows students, researchers and professionals

to freely access the code, use it for any purpose, and modify it.

This enables scientists to use it as the foundations for their research, and

industry professionals to include them as part of their toolkit.

During this talk we'll introduce the tools available in Fatiando a Terra,

showing how they can be used to solve geophysical problems.



### Methods, Procedures, Process



Fatiando a Terra is composed by a collection of Python libraries, each one with

a specific set of goals and scope.

Pooch allows to easily download and cache data from the web.

Ensaio hosts curated open-licensed geophysical datasets useful for teaching,

learning how to use our tools and probing new methodologies and code.

Verde offers tools for processing and interpolating spatial data with an

interface inspired in the well-known machine learning packages.

Boule defines geodetic reference ellipsoids that offer coordinate

conversions and normal gravity calculations.

Lastly, Harmonica enables processing and modelling gravity and magnetic

data.

It offers tools for applying standard corrections to gravity data; FFT-based

transformations to regular grids; forward modelling gravity and magnetic fields

using different sources such as point sources, dipoles, rectangular prisms and

tesseroids (a.k.a. spherical coordinates).

It also includes tools for interpolating, gridding and upward

continuing harmonic fields data with equivalent sources; and for reading

geophysical data from industry formats, like Oasis Montaj® GRD files.

Fatiando a Terra follows the higher standards in software development following

best practices for developing, maintaining, testing and documenting our code.

Our tools rely on well-known Python libraries from the Python scientific

ecosystem. This allows us to write fast and efficient implementations of

standard and state-of-the art geophysical methodologies.



### Results, Observations, Conclusions



With more than 12 years of development, Fatiando a Terra have

managed to produce high quality open-source software tools, and to create

a community of users and contributors from different regions of the

world.

Its development is driven by the needs of the community members, motivated by

their research and exploration goals.

Fatiando has been used in multiple PhD thesis and scientific articles,

including several ones authored by researchers that aren't involved in the

project.



Most of the Fatiando developers and contributors are scientific researchers who

regularly use it for their research.

This presents two main advantages.

First, the tools are built from the user perspective, leading to high

quality software design and documentation.

Secondly, new methodologies developed by these researchers are usually

implemented into the same libraries that enabled the research.

This creates a positive feedback between research and open-source software:

scientific research benefits from high quality software, and the software grows

after the advances of the research.



An example of this is the development of the gradient-boosted equivalent

sources, a technique that enables interpolating very large datasets of

potential fields data.

The research was motivated by the preexisting equivalent sources in

Harmonica, and after its publication, the gradient-boosted equivalent sources

were made available for its use through the same library.



### Significance/Novelty



Open-source scientific software stands as a clear alternative to black-box

solutions, allowing their users to study their code and build own solutions on

top of them.

This allows the creation of foundational tools both for science and industry.

Users are welcomed to contribute with new code, documentation, examples, use

cases, and new ideas for extending their capabilities.

Fatiando a Terra is a great example of how collaborative and community-driven

projects can create high quality open-source tools that the broader

geoscientific community can leverage.