Wave-equation-based travel-time seismic tomography – Part 1: Method

Abstract. In this paper, we propose a wave-equation-based travel-time seismic tomography method with a detailed description of its step-by-step process. First, a linear relationship between the travel-time residual Δt = T^obs–T^syn and the relative velocity perturbation δ c(x)/c(x) connected by a finite-frequency travel-time sensitivity kernel K(x) is theoretically derived using the adjoint method. To accurately calculate the travel-time residual Δt, two automatic arrival-time picking techniques including the envelop energy ratio method and the combined ray and cross-correlation method are then developed to compute the arrival times T^syn for synthetic seismograms. The arrival times T^obs of observed seismograms are usually determined by manual hand picking in real applications. Travel-time sensitivity kernel K(x) is constructed by convolving a~forward wavefield u(t,x) with an adjoint wavefield q(t,x). The calculations of synthetic seismograms and sensitivity kernels rely on forward modeling. To make it computationally feasible for tomographic problems involving a large number of seismic records, the forward problem is solved in the two-dimensional (2-D) vertical plane passing through the source and the receiver by a high-order central difference method. The final model is parameterized on 3-D regular grid (inversion) nodes with variable spacings, while model values on each 2-D forward modeling node are linearly interpolated by the values at its eight surrounding 3-D inversion grid nodes. Finally, the tomographic inverse problem is formulated as a regularized optimization problem, which can be iteratively solved by either the LSQR solver or a~nonlinear conjugate-gradient method. To provide some insights into future 3-D tomographic inversions, Fréchet kernels for different seismic phases are also demonstrated in this study.