Approximating back-scattered wavefronts for continuous and sharply changing interfaces

What is it about?

In particular in controlled-source seismology, where receivers are cheap and abundant, collective signatures of wavefronts can be recorded and measured across many spatially adjacent seismograms. Traditionally, the active seismic method primarily utilizes reflection off continuous and smooth interfaces, while diffraction occuring at sharp kinks and edges in these interfaces is often ignored. We introduce a new adaptable approximation that can describe the collective signatures of reflected and diffracted wavefronts equally well.

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Why is it important?

Seismic data is often contaminated with uncorrelated noise, which makes the back-scattered wavefield, carrying information on the interface and subsurface heterogeneity, hard to access and utilize. This work likewise allows to accurately approximate wavefront signatures of reflections and diffractions, which can be used for data summation to enhance coherent signal and suppress undesired noise. In contrast to previous works, we also account for the process of diffraction, which generally results in weaker amplitudes more succeptible to "drowning" in noise.