Fréchet kernels for finite-frequency traveltimes-I. Theory

Abstract

We use body wave ray theory in conjunction with the Born approximation tocompute 3-D Fréchet kernels for finite-frequency seismic traveltimes, measured by cross-correlation of a broad-band waveform with a spherical earth synthetic seismogram. Destructive interference among adjacent frequencies in the broad-band pulse renders a cross-correlation traveltime measurement sensitive only to the wave speed in a hollow banana-shaped region surrounding the unperturbed geometrical ray. The Fréchet kernel expressing this sensitivity is expressed as a double sum over all forward-propagating body waves from the source and backward-propagating body waves from the receiver to every single scatterer in the vicinity of this central ray. The kernel for a differential traveltime, measured by cross-correlation of two phases at the same receiver, is simply the difference of the respective single-phase kernels. In the paraxial approximation, an absolute or differential traveltime kernel can be computed extremely economically by implementing a single kinematic and dynamic ray trace along each source-to-receiver ray.