Open AccessThe Removal of Free Surface Interactions From Three‐Component Seismograms
Author(s) -
Kennett B. L. N.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
geophysical journal international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.302
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1365-246X
pISSN - 0956-540X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-246x.1991.tb02501.x
Subject(s) - slowness , seismogram , azimuth , geology , wavefront , amplitude , seismology , surface (topology) , sichuan basin , component (thermodynamics) , surface wave , geodesy , free surface , epicenter , geometry , mathematics , optics , physics , mechanics , thermodynamics , geochemistry
SUMMARY The effect of the free surface can be removed from three‐component seismic recordings to recover the incident upgoing wavefield, if the slowness and azimuth of the current wavefront are known as a function of time. For a single three‐component station it is usually possible to estimate an azimuth for an event from the first arriving P ‐waves, but slowness estimates are less reliable when more than one wavetype is presented in the seismic wavetrain. However, the free surface correction operators are generally slowly varying functions of slowness and so some error in slowness can be tolerated. Effective approximations for the removal of the free surface effects can be made for hard rock sites to cover slowness bands for the main regional phases Pn, Pg, Sn and Lg. By applying these operators in turn over group velocity windows appropriate to the particular phases, the relative amplitude of the P, SV and SH contributions to the wavefield can be estimated. Because the free surface amplification effects have been removed, the amplitudes can be compared directly and provide useful constraints on the radiation characteristics of the source. This procedure is therefore helpful for developing discrimination measures for different classes of sources.