Nonuniqueness and Uniqueness for Inverse Magnetization Problems

Nonuniqueness is a well-known issue with inverse problems involving geophysical potential fields (typically gravitational or magnetic fields). If no additional assumptions are made on the underlying source, only certain harmonic contributions can be reconstructed uniquely from knowledge of the potential. Such harmonic contributions have no intuitive geophysical interpretation. However, in various applications some specific properties are of particular interest: e.g., the direction of the magnetization in paleomagnetic studies or the lithospheric susceptibility in geomagnetism. In this presentation, we give a brief overview on the characterization of nonuniqueness and on a priori assumptions on the underlying magnetization that might lead to uniqueness or at least partial uniqueness.