Constraints on minimum velocity variance for seismic-traveltime tomography

Journal Article · Fri Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1994 · Geophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1994.tb04008.x· OSTI ID:147904

Berryman, J G ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)

Traveltime data together with known spacing between sources and receivers for seismic-transmission tomography can be used to determine rigorous constraints on the minimum and maximum wave speeds in the propagating medium. These constraints lead to a new minimum variance criterion on inversion algorithms. These results do not improve the velocity reconstructions directly, but provide rigorous and easily computed figures of merit to help evaluate the difficulty of the reconstruction problem and the performance of tomographic-inversion codes. Specifically, these criteria may be used during preprocessing to decide whether linear or non-linear traveltime-tomography methods are required for analyzing a given data set, or during post-processing to determine whether regularization methods used to constrain the maximum model variance were overly restrictive.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 147904
• Journal Information: Geophysical Journal, Journal Name: Geophysical Journal Vol. 119; ISSN 0952-4592; ISSN GEJOEH
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
BOREHOLES
CALCULATION METHODS
DATA ANALYSIS
EQUATIONS
EXPLORATION
SEDIMENTARY BASINS
SEISMIC SURVEYS
SEISMIC WAVES
TEXAS
TOMOGRAPHY
WAVE PROPAGATION