摘要:The paper reviews the method of determining the shape and size of the coal self-heating source on coal pit benches and in coal piles during mining of coal by the open method. The method is based on the regularity found in the 1970s of the previous century and related to the distribution of potential of the natural electrical field arising from the temperature in the vicinity of the center of self-heating. The problem is reduced to the solution of inverse ill-posed problem of mathematical physics. The study presents the developed algorithm of its solution and the results of numerical simulation.