Comparison of full wavefield synthetics with frequency-dependent traveltimes calculated using wavelength-dependent velocity smoothing

Jianxiong Chen and Colin A. Zelt

Journal of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, 22, 133-141, 2017.

Ray theory-based traveltime calculation that assumes infinitely high frequency wave propagation is likely to be invalid in the near-surface (upper tens of meters) due to the relatively large seismic wavelength compared with the total travel path lengths and the scale of the near -surface velocity heterogeneities. The wavelength-dependent velocity smoothing (WDVS) algorithm calculates a frequency-dependent, first-arrival traveltime by assuming that using a wavelength-smoothed velocity model and conventional ray theory is equivalent to using the original unsmoothed model and a frequency-dependent calculation. This paper presents comparisons of WDVS-calculated traveltimes with band-limited full wave field synthetics including the results from 1) different velocity models, 2) different frequency spectra, 3) different values of a free parameter in the WDVS algorithm, and 4) different levels of added noise to the synthetics. The results show that WDVS calculates frequency-dependent travel times that are generally consistent with the first arrivals from band-limited full wavefield synthetics. Compared to infinite-frequency traveltimes calculated using conventional ray theory, the WDVS frequency-dependent traveltimes are more consistent with the first arrivals picked from full wavefield synthetics in terms of absolute time and trace-to-trace variation. The results support the use of WDVS as the forward modeling component of a tomographic inversion method, or any seismic method that involves modeling first-arrival traveltimes.