Though commonly used in minerals exploration, transient electromagnetic (TEM) methods are less common in environmental and engineering applications. Several aspects of the technique make it a very useful tool, including the flexibility of loop sizes and geometries, and the recent improvement in electronics that allow faster transmitter turn-off times, and therefore shallower soundings. Faster electronics also allow the acquisition of all three magnetic field components simultaneously, increasing the amount of information available for modeling and interpretation.

TEM methods can be extremely useful in high resolution environmental surveys, particularly when the equipment system allows rapid and easy changes in loop geometries to take advantage of the differing sensitivities of loop arrays. Small, discrete targets can be located with in-loop surveys, while boundaries of large targets are often better delineated with fixed-loop methods.