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Weighted-elastic-wave interferometric imaging of microseismic source location

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Abstract

Knowledge of the locations of seismic sources is critical for microseismic monitoring. Time-window-based elastic wave interferometric imaging and weighted-elastic-wave (WEW) interferometric imaging are proposed and used to locate modeled microseismic sources. The proposed method improves the precision and eliminates artifacts in location profiles. Numerical experiments based on a horizontally layered isotropic medium have shown that the method offers the following advantages: It can deal with low-SNR microseismic data with velocity perturbations as well as relatively sparse receivers and still maintain relatively high precision despite the errors in the velocity model. Furthermore, it is more efficient than conventional traveltime inversion methods because interferometric imaging does not require traveltime picking. Numerical results using a 2D fault model have also suggested that the weighted-elastic-wave interferometric imaging can locate multiple sources with higher location precision than the time-reverse imaging method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Acoustics, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Lei Li, Hao Chen & Xiu-Ming Wang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Lei Li

Authors
  1. Lei Li
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  2. Hao Chen
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  3. Xiu-Ming Wang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hao Chen.

Additional information

This work is supported by the R&D of Key Instruments and Technologies for Deep Resources Prospecting ( No. ZDYZ2012-1) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 11374322).

Li Lei, PhD student, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Main research interests are seismic wave propagation and microseismic event location and imaging.

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Li, L., Chen, H. & Wang, XM. Weighted-elastic-wave interferometric imaging of microseismic source location. Appl. Geophys. 12, 221–234 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-015-0479-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11770-015-0479-z

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