An optimized finite difference method based on a polar coordinate system for regional-scale irregular topography

Abstract

The finite difference method (FDM) is an important numerical approach for simulating the propagation of seismic waves, and some FDMs can be used to study the impact of the Earth’s curvature and topography over large distances. To efficiently model the effects of the Earth’s irregular topography on the propagation of seismic waves, here we optimize a previously proposed grid mesh method and develop a novel two-dimensional boundary-conforming FDM based on a curvilinear polar coordinate system. This method efficiently simulates the propagation of seismic waves in an arc-shaped model with large variations in surface topography. Our method was benchmarked against other reported methods using several global-scale models. The consistency of the results confirms the validity of our proposed optimization strategy. Furthermore, our findings indicate that the proposed optimization strategy improves computational efficiency.