SIMULATIONS OF REFLECTIONS AND DIFFRACTIONS FROM TARGETS BURIED IN A MEDIUM WITH LINEAR VARIATION OF VELOCITY WITH DISTANCE*

Abstract

AbstractA combination of ray theory and diffraction theory has been used to simulate reflections of seismic pulses from a full plane and reflections and diffractions from a half plane buried horizontally in earth models with linear increase of velocity with depth. Wave forms of signals reflected from a full plane in this case are modifications of the source pulse, even if the medium is assumed to be perfectly elastic. The extent of pulse modification increases with increase of the velocity gradient. The duration of the reflected pulse is always longer than that of the source pulse. The pulses diffracted from the edge of the half plane in such cases do not lie along hyperbolic curves in the time‐offset plane. Diffracted signals can be observed only up to a limited distance from the edge of the half plane equalling half the horizontal range of the ray which is tangential to the half plane and has its end points at the level of the source and the receiver.