Abstract
Full-waveform inversion (FWI) optimizes the subsurface properties of geophysical earth models in such a way that the modeled data, based on these subsurface properties, match the observed data. The anisotropic properties, whether monoclinic, orthorhombic, triclinic, or vertical transversally isotropic (VTI), of the subsurface, be it a fractured reservoir or the core-mantle boundary, are necessary to describe the observed wave phenomena. There are no principal limitations on the complexity of the anisotropy that can be inverted using FWI. However, the question remains – what kind of anisotropic descriptions of the elastic properties of the earth can or cannot be inverted reliably from seismic waveforms? We reveal the resolution that can be achieved through reconstructions of each elastic parameter by building vertical resolution patterns from the scattering radiation patterns of body waves. A visual analysis of these patterns indicates
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2781-2811 |
| Number of pages | 31 |
| Journal | Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth |
| Volume | 124 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 14 2019 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: The research reported in this publication was supported by funding from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). We are grateful to seismic wave analysis group, KAUST, for helpful discussions. Vladimir Kazei is also grateful to Oleg Ovcharenko and Veronica Tremblay of KAUST for their suggestions on improving the manuscript readability. We thank KAUST for support and its HPC resources. Finally, we would like to thank JGR editors and reviewers for their helpful suggestions and comments. The MATLAB code used in the paper is available at https://github.com/vkazei/ScatteringAtlas.