Surface waves analysis, modeling and inversion in the seismic exploration

Surface waves methods span a broad range of applications and scales. From the low frequency seismological application to the ultrasonic non-destructive testing, the analysis and inversion of the surface wave propagation properties is used to characterize materials and find defects and heterogeneities.

In the exploration industry, however, surface waves have been traditionally considered coherent noise masking the useful reflections. The progress in land acquisition technologies and data processing is changing this perspective. Broadband surface waves are acquired with incredibly dense spatial sampling in modern 3D seismic surveying: high resolution models of the near surface can be obtained from the surface wave analysis, and model-based techniques can be used for their attenuation.