Crustal 1-D and 3-D resistivity models of the Badain Jaran Desert inverted with magnetotelluric array data

To obtain the electrical structure and discuss the groundwater recharge mechanism of the lake group in the Badain Jaran Desert (BJD) and the saline fluid content in the confined aquifers, we inverted 153 magnetotelluric (MT) array data. The 3D inversion used the ModEM modular inversion code, developed using the Non-Linear Conjugate Gradient (NLCG) method. The WinGLink package is used to perform 1D OCCAM inversion. From 2019 to 2021, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly recorded MT data in and around the BJD with the MTU-5A and MTU-5C instruments produced by Phoenix-Geophysics, Canada. The folder “./Coordinates” contains two files: (1)“BBMT_stations.txt”, coordinates of all inverted broadband MT stations in Longitude/Latitude format; (2)“AMT_BBMT_stations.txt”, coordinates of all inverted audio-frequency and broadband MT stations. The folder “./1D model” contains the resistivity model from 1D OCCAM inversion. The folder “./3D model” contains the resistivity model from 3D inversion.