Can we extract Earth’s attenuation structure from the ambient seismic field?

The use of the ambient seismic field (ASF) to extract Earth’s response has received significant attention in the last several years. Multiple studies demonstrate the utility of the ASF for estimating high-resolution velocity models in various locations. I present evidence that it is also possible to extract amplitude information from the ASF, including geometrical spreading, attenuation and basin amplification. As has been suggested by other authors, amplitude measurements may be biased due to ASF source distributions. However here I show that both stable results for different time intervals and numerical simulations indicate that it is possible to estimate attenuation from the ASF. A great deal of information can be extracted from the ASF and in particular amplitude measurements may be valuable due to the enhanced sensitivity of attenuation to fluids and/or temperature fluctuations.