A 3-D spectral-element and frequency-wave number hybrid method for high-resolution seismic array imaging

Abstract

We present a three-dimensional (3-D) hybrid method that interfaces the spectral-element method (SEM) with the frequency-wave number (FK) technique to model the propagation of teleseismic plane waves beneath seismic arrays. The accuracy of the resulting 3-D SEM-FK hybrid method is benchmarked against semianalytical FK solutions for 1-D models. The accuracy of 2.5-D modeling based on 2-D SEM-FK hybrid method is also investigated through comparisons to this 3-D hybrid method. Synthetic examples for structural models of the Alaska subduction zone and the central Tibet crust show that this method is capable of accurately capturing interactions between incident plane waves and local heterogeneities. This hybrid method presents an essential tool for the receiver function and scattering imaging community to verify and further improve their techniques. These numerical examples also show the promising future of the 3-D SEM-FK hybrid method in high-resolution regional seismic imaging based on waveform inversions of converted/scattered waves recorded by seismic array. Key PointsThree-dimensional spectral-element and frequency-wave number (SEM-FK) hybrid methodsAccurate modeling of teleseismic converted and scattered wavesHigh-resolution teleseismic array analysis