Rapid seismic ray tracing in a spherically symmetric earth via interpolation of rays
- Creators
- Comer, Robert P.
Abstract
From the equations for seismic ray tracing in a general three-dimensionally heterogeneous isotropic elastic medium, we derive equations appropriate for a spherically symmetric earth, with path length as the independent parameter. Numerical integration of these equations, plus their derivatives with respect to take-off angle, leads to a set of reference rays for the direct P phase. From a modest number of reference rays, which need be computed only once for a given earth model, ray path coordinates and travel times can be rapidly and accurately computed by Hermite cubic interpolation using specific algorithms which we outline. Because of the speed of the interpolation and the explicit parameterization in terms of path length, this technique is ideally suited for use in a tomographic inversion of global P-wave travel-time observations to obtain an estimate of lateral velocity heterogeneity in the mantle.
Additional Information
© 1984 Seismological Society of America. Manuscript received 20 July 1983. I would like to thank Rob Clayton for much stimulating discussion and help with computer programming, and to acknowledge the support of a Bantrell Postdoctoral Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (Grant EAR8317623).Attached Files
Published - 479.full.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 48545
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140814-084452662
- EAR8317623
- NSF
- Created
-
2014-08-14Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2019-10-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Other Numbering System Name
- Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
- Other Numbering System Identifier
- 3942