Stratigraphic filtering of SH waves in a spherical, layered earth

Abstract

We present a derivation of the formula for filtering a transmitted SH wavelet by shortperiod multiples in a spherically layered Earth. We use a continuous, rather than a discrete formulation and regard the impedance and the velocity as random variables. The mean shear displacement represents the propagating wavelet as modified by short-period multiples. Standard procedures and approximations Lead to the dispersion relation of the mean displacement. To describe the stratigraphic filtering we introduce a complex quantityF such that a wavelet which has travelled a time ΔT is modified by the filter exp {iωFΔT}. The impact of the higher angular harmonic modes is shown to produce a relative enhancement of those modes over the low angular harmonic modes due to fluctuations in the shear-wave propagation velocity. Numerical estimates indicate that the sizes of the apparent attenuation of the mean field and the time delay introduced by the short-period multiples sit squarely in the regime where they produce a nonnegligible distortion of the SH modes of propagation in both phase and amplitude.