Physical and non-physical energy in scattered wave source-receiver interferometry

Area of Science:

• Seismology
• Wave Physics

Background:

• Source-receiver interferometry estimates Green's functions using wavefield convolution and cross-correlation.
• Practical applications often succeed despite contravening theoretical requirements like complete boundary enclosures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explain the success of source-receiver interferometry in real-world scenarios with incomplete boundaries.
• To elucidate the mechanisms behind its improved performance compared to inter-receiver interferometry.

Main Methods:

• Analyzing the construction of kinematic information for scattered waves using cross-convolution.
• Investigating how source-receiver interferometry handles wavefields from partial boundaries.
• Examining the transformation of spurious energy within the interferometry process.

Main Results:

• Source-receiver interferometry constructs kinematic information about physically scattered waves between source and receiver.
• It reduces ambiguity in wavefield interpretation by identifying and ignoring spurious energy.
• It converts non-physical energy from inter-receiver interferometry into apparent physical energy.

Conclusions:

• Source-receiver interferometry's robustness with partial boundaries is due to its method of constructing wavefield information.
• The technique effectively distinguishes and manages spurious energy, enhancing Green's function estimation.
• This explains the observed superior performance of source-receiver interferometry in practical seismic applications.