A Ray Description of All Wavefields Generated by a High-Frequency Point Source near an Interface

Abstract

We consider the wavefield of a point source situated near an interface between two homogeneous acoustic half-spaces and placed in the faster medium. A high-frequency asymptotic description of all waves present is given by an elementary approach avoiding the explicit solution. The basic tool is the ray method based on real rays though some of the waves (e.g., the so-called P* wave) have complex eikonals. For a description of field in the vicinity of the limiting ray, a parabolic-equation approach is employed.