Performance of time and frequency domain cluster solvers compared to geophysical applications

Abstract

In the framework of frequency-domain full waveform inversion (FWI), we compare the performance of two MPI-based acoustic solvers. One of the solvers is the time-domain solver developed by the SEISCOPE consortium. The other solver is a frequency-domain multifrontal direct solver developed by us. For the high-contrast 3D velocity model, we perform the series of experiments for varying numbers of cluster nodes and shots, and conclude that in FWI applications the solvers complement each other in terms of performance. Theoretically, the conclusion follows from considerations of structures of the solvers and their scalabilities. Relations between the number of cluster nodes, the size of the geophysical model and the number of shots define which solver would be preferable in terms of performance.