Publikationsdatum:
2016-10-08
Beschreibung:
Rayleigh wave amplitudes are the primary data set used for imaging shear attenuation in the upper mantle on a global scale. In addition to attenuation, surface-wave amplitudes are influenced by excitation at the earthquake source, focusing and scattering by elastic heterogeneity, and local structure at the receiver and the instrument response. The challenge of isolating the signal of attenuation from these other effects limits both the resolution of global attenuation models and the level of consistency between different global attenuation studies. While the source and receiver terms can be estimated using relatively simple approaches, focusing effects on amplitude are a large component of the amplitude signal and are sensitive to multiscale velocity anomalies. In this study we investigate how different theoretical treatments for focusing effects on Rayleigh wave amplitude influence the retrieved attenuation models. A new data set of fundamental-mode Rayleigh wave phase and amplitude at periods of 50 and 100 sis analysed. The amplitudes due to focusing effects are predicted using the great-circle ray approximation (GCRA), exact ray theory (ERT), and finite-frequency theory (FFT). Phase-velocity maps expanded to spherical-harmonic degree 20 and degree 40 are used for the predictions. After correction for focusing effects, the amplitude data are inverted for global attenuation maps and frequency-dependent source and receiver correction factors. The degree-12 attenuation maps, based on different corrections for focusing effects, all contain the same large-scale features, though the magnitude of the attenuation variations depends on the focusing correction. The variance reduction of the amplitudes strongly depends on the predicted focusing amplitudes, with the highest variance reduction for the ray-based approaches at 50 s and for FFT at 100 s. Although failure to account for focusing effects introduces artefacts into the attenuation models at higher spherical-harmonic degrees, the low-degree structure can be robustly retrieved. The new attenuation maps compare favourably with previous attenuation studies derived using independent amplitude data sets.
Schlagwort(e):
Seismology
Print ISSN:
0956-540X
Digitale ISSN:
1365-246X
Thema:
Geologie und Paläontologie
Publiziert von
Oxford University Press
im Namen von
The Deutsche Geophysikalische Gesellschaft (DGG) and the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS).
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