# Feature-based Inversion of 2.5D Controlled Source Electromagnetic Data using Generative Priors

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02145 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.02145/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 10 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 10 of 10)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [An Introduction to Variational Autoencoders](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02691/) (2019)
- [Solving Inverse Problems in Medical Imaging with Score-Based Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.08005/) (2021)
- [Compressed Sensing using Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.03208/) (2017)
- [Solving Linear Inverse Problems Provably via Posterior Sampling with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00619/) (2023)
- [Solving 3D Inverse Problems using Pre-trained 2D Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.10655/) (2022)
- [Solving Linear Inverse Problems Using GAN Priors: An Algorithm with Provable Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.08406/) (2018)
- [Blind Image Deconvolution using Deep Generative Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.04073/) (2018)
- [Modified projected Gauss-Newton method for constrained nonlinear least-squares: application to power flow analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00783/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this study, we investigate feature-based 2.5D controlled source marine electromagnetic (mCSEM) data inversion using generative priors. Two-and-half dimensional modeling using finite difference method (FDM) is adopted to compute the response of horizontal electric dipole (HED) excitation. Rather than using a neural network to approximate the entire inverse mapping in a black-box manner, we adopt a plug-andplay strategy in which a variational autoencoder (VAE) is used solely to learn prior information on conductivity distributions. During the inversion process, the conductivity model is iteratively updated using the Gauss Newton method, while the model space is constrained by projections onto the learned VAE decoder. This framework preserves explicit control over data misfit and enables flexible adaptation to different survey configurations. Numerical and field experiments demonstrate that the proposed approach effectively incorporates prior information, improves reconstruction accuracy, and exhibits good generalization performance.