Application of the edge wave superposition method

Abstract

Numerical examples of high-frequency synthetic seismograms of body waves in a 2-D layered medium with complex interfaces (faults, wedges, curvilinear, corrugated) are presented. The wave field modeling algorithm combines the possibilities of the ray method and the edge wave superposition method. This approach preserves all advantages of the ray method and eliminates restrictions related to diffraction by boundary edges and to caustic effects in singular regions. The method does not require two-point ray tracing (source-to-receiver), and the position of the source, as well as the type of source, and the position of receivers can be chosen arbitrarily. The memory and the time required for synthetic seismogram computation are similar to ray synthetic seismograms. The computation of the volume of the medium (the Fresnel volume or Fresnel zones), which gives the essential contribution to the wave field, is included in the modeling program package. In the case of complicated irregular interface (or a layered medium with a regular ray field at the last interface), the method displays a high accuracy of wave field computation. Otherwise, the method can be considered a modification of the ray method with regularization by the superposition of edge waves.