Surface-wave mode coupling for efficient forward modelling and inversion of body-wave phases

Abstract

SUMMARY The importance of surface-wave mode coupling in the modelling of body-wave phases by surface-wave mode summation is studied by means of sensitivity kernels obtained with the Born approximation and exact solutions of the Invariant Imbedding Technique. It is shown that, independent of the character of the lateral heterogeneity, surface-wave mode coupling is required to model body-wave phase perturbations and that neglecting intermode coupling, as in the WKBJ method for surface waves, can lead to large biases. Because methods which describe surfacewave mode coupling in an exact fashion are computationally too expensive to use in inversion schemes, the Scalar Exponent Approximation (SEA) is presented, which is a computationally efficient method and takes mode coupling into account. Since, instead of Earth normal modes, surface-wave modes are used, the summation over the angular order l is carried out analytically. This means that the number of modes and mode interactions needed is significantly reduced which assures an efficient manner of modelling. It is shown that the SEA is accurate in modelling body-wave phase perturbations for geophysically realistic configurations. Because, in contrast to the WKBJ sensitivity kernels, mode coupling introduces sensitivity kernels which also depend on the position along the source-receiver path, the SEA requires a larger model parameter set in inversions. A procedure is presented which reorganizes the model parameter set and leads to a reduced set of physically relevant model parameters. The combination of the SEA and the reorganization of the model parameters can be used efficiently in large-scale 3-D inversions which incorporate the important effects of surface-wave mode coupling.