Mesoscopics of ultrasound and seismic waves: application to passive imaging

Abstract

This manuscript deals with different aspects of the propagation of acoustic and seismic waves in heterogeneous media, both simply and multiply scattering ones. After a short introduction on conventional imaging techniques, we describe two observations that demonstrate the presence of multiple scattering in seismic records: the equipartition principle, and the coherent backscattering effect (Chap. 2). Multiple scattering is related to the mesoscopic nature of seismic and acoustic waves, and is a strong limitation for conventional techniques like medical or seismic imaging. In the following part of the manuscript (Chaps. 3–5), we present an application of mesoscopic physics to acoustic and seismic waves: the principle of passive imaging. By correlating records of ambient noise or diffuse waves obtained at two passive sensors, it is possible to reconstruct the impulse response of the medium as if a source was placed at one sensor. This provides the opportunity of doing acoustics and seismology without a source. Several aspects of this technique are presented here, starting with theoretical considerations and numerical simulations (Chaps. 3, 4). Then we present experimental applications (Chap. 5) to ultrasound (passive tomography of a layered medium) and to seismic waves (passive imaging of California, and the Moon, with micro-seismic noise).