Imaging of seismic discontinuities using an adjoint method

Geophysical Journal International
By:  and 

Links

Abstract

For imaging of seismic discontinuities at depth, reverse time migration (RTM) is a powerful method to apply to recordings of seismic events. It is especially powerful when an extensive receiver array, numerous seismic sources, or both, permit adequate reconstruction of incident and scattered wavefields at depth. Reconstructing either the incident or scattered wavefield at depth becomes less accurate when relatively few recordings of seismic events are available. Here we explore an inverse scattering approach to imaging discontinuities based on an adjoint method, employing sensitivity kernels (Frechet derivatives) that represent jumps in material properties across seismic-discontinuity surfaces. When combined with ray-based requirements on scattering geometry, it constitutes a powerful approach to determining the locations and amplitudes of the discontinuities, recovering only those properties that can be resolved by a spatially limited source and/or receiver distribution. This is illustrated by synthetic examples with local sources followed by a field example in a subduction zone setting

Study Area

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Imaging of seismic discontinuities using an adjoint method
Series title Geophysical Journal International
DOI 10.1093/gji/ggae377
Volume 240
Issue 1
Year Published 2024
Language English
Publisher Oxford Academic
Contributing office(s) Earthquake Science Center
Description 21 p.
First page 96
Last page 116
Country United States
State Washington
Other Geospatial Olympic Peninsula
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details