2012 IRIS Workshop

3D Seismic Models and Finite-Frequency vs Ray Theoretical Approaches

Monica Maceira: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Carene Larmat: Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rob Porritt: UC Berkeley, Richard Allen: UC Berkeley, Charlotte Rowe: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Validating seismic imaging methods using the Spectral Element Method. It is not clear at this point when the breakdown of ray-theory becomes an issue making finite-frequency approaches necessary in tomographic models. We test this limit in our models through direct comparison of observed seismograms and synthetics computed for the finite-frequency and ray theoretical models. The plot summarizes misfit for eight events. The solid line is the expected misfit from the forward solution. Circles and triangles are the mean misfit between the real data and the synthetic data for both SV and SH phases respectively, and from both Ray Theory (yellow) and Finite Frequency (blue) theory. In most cases the Finite Frequency has a lower misfit.

Full-resolution graphics file in original format: 0076.jpg