Wavepath traveltime tomography

Abstract

SUMMARY The elastic-wave equation is used to construct sensitivity kernels relating perturbations in elastic parameters to traveltime deviations. Computation of the functions requires a correlation of the forward-propagating seismic wavefield with a backward propagation of the residual wavefield. The computation of the wavefields is accomplished using a finite difference algorithm and is efficiently executed on a CM-2 parallel processor. The source and receiver locations have maximum sensitivity to velocity structure. The sensitivity kernels or wavepaths are well suited for transmission traveltime inversion such as cross-borehole tomography and vertical seismic profiling. Conventional ray tomography and wavepath tomography are applied to a set of P-wave arrival times, from a cross-borehole experiment at Kesterson, California. Because the wavepaths have increased sensitivity near the source and receiver there are differences in resolution of the velocity structure. Both techniques recover the same relative variations in velocity where the coverage is adequate. The wavepath solution is more laterally continuous and the dominant variation is vertical, as is expected for the layered sediments in this region.