U

Undersampling  – a term applied to the measurements of the gravity or magnetic field at regular space intervals which are longer than the size of anomalies striking at acute angles to the traverse survey lines. In case of U., the interpolation between discrete data points in the direction of a strike of a short-wavelength anomaly by gridding algorithms will result in appearance of a trend of small separated circular or elongated contours (bull’s eyes) instead of more or less continuous trend of this anomaly. [126]. See also Bull’s Eye Effect.

Universal Gravitational Constant (G)  – a force of the gravity attraction between two small uniform spheres, each of the mass equals to 1 gram and placed so that their centers are 1cm apart. The latest reference [41] define this value as

G = (6.67259 ± 0.00085) 10 –8 cm 3 gm –1sec–2  (in cgs units)

or

G = (6.67259 ± 0.00085) 10 –11 m 3 kg –1 sec –2 (in SI units)

            U.G.C. is also referred to as Newtonian Gravitational Constant and Big G. See Newton’s Law of Gravitation.

Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)  – a global coordinate system based on a standard rectangular map grid.  It is used to determine “x” and “y” coordinates in meters for each specific location in reference to the Equator (positive “y” values increase toward the North from the Equator, and negative “y” values increase toward the South from the Equator), and one of 60 central meridians within 60 meridianal zones, each 6° of longitude wide, covering the Earth’s surface (positive “x” values increase toward the East from the given central meridian, and negative “x” values increase toward the West from the given central meridian). UTM zones are numbered from west to east. Zone 1 has the central meridian of 177ºW longitude. Zone 31 has the central meridian of 3ºE longitude.  Each central meriduan is assigned the False Easting value of 500 000 m.  The Equator is assigned the False Northing value of 0 in the Northern Hemisphere and 10 000 000 m in the Southern Hemisphere. [223]. See also False Easting and False Northing.

Upward Continuation  – a procedure to recompute the potential field data at an elevation higher than that at which the potential field was observed. In the frequency domain, U.C. behaves like a smoothing Low-Pass Filter. Commonly, U.C. is used to attenuate near-surface noise, tie the aeromagnetic surveys flown at different altitudes and calculate a residual component of the potential field (as a difference between the observed field and the upward continued field). The general formula of U.C. can be presented as

F(w) = 1/ehw,

            where “h” is the level of upward continuation in meters. The property of attenuating the gravity or magnetic effects of small-scale topographic and near-surface density or susceptibility variations allows to use U.C. in designing cascaded filters. [97, 118, 156, 184, 196, 215, 223]. See also Downward Continuation and Preferential Continuation.

Upward Continuation Residual   a residual gravity or magnetic field obtained after subtracting the upward continued field from the original field.  See Residual and Upward Continuation.

UTM  – see Universal Transverse Mercator.

UXO Detection  – unexploded ordinance detection. A new military technology adapted to the diamond and gold exploration as well as ultra-detailed mapping of very subtle magnetic property differences (such as intrusive/ore body zonation/alteration), monitoring buried pipelines, and other high-precision applications. UXO acquisition system features DGPS navigation, ultra-high Amplitude Resolution (0.001 nT), high-speed summed sampling (up to 20 summed samples per second), multi-sensor high-sensitivity gradient measurements at randomly distributed or regular-oriented points of observation using low-flying and slow-moving helicopters. See DiaMagÔ.