Observation of spikelets in steady-state surface nuclear magnetic resonance data

Spikelets in NMR data occur at predictable frequencies depending only on the repetition time of the excitation sequence. While spikelets are well documented in other NMR fields, we report their presence in steady-state surface NMR data for the first time. These observations are accompanied by analytical developments to understand and predict their behaviour, which follow directly from existing steady-state surface NMR modelling. We show that spikelets represent copies of the surface NMR signal occurring at multiple locations in the frequency domain, including locations that are distinct from the Larmor frequency. These features are shown to be detectable without requiring additional effort in the field, and are shown to be readily processed and modeled with only minor modifications to the processing and modelling workflows. Finally, field spikelet data is also inverted to demonstrate that these data can be fit using subsurface models consistent with a reference surface NMR inversion.