On measuring surface wave phase velocity from station-station cross-correlation of ambient signal

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Lapo Boschi
  • Cornelis Weemstra
  • Julie Verbeke
  • Göran Ekström
  • Andrea Zunino
  • Domenico Giardini

We apply two different algorithms to measure surface wave phase velocity, as a function of frequency, from seismic ambient noise recorded at pairs of stations from a large European network. The two methods are based on consistent theoretical formulations, but differ in the implementation: one method involves the time-domain cross-correlation of signal recorded at different stations; the other is based on frequency-domain cross-correlation, and requires finding the zero-crossings of the real part of the cross-correlation spectrum. Furthermore, the time-domain method, as implemented here and in the literature, practically involves the important approximation that interstation distance be large compared to seismic wavelength. In both cases, cross-correlations are ensemble-averaged over a relatively long period of time (1 yr). We verify that the two algorithms give consistent results, and infer that phase velocity can be successfully measured through ensemble-averaging of seismic ambient noise, further validating earlier studies that had followed either approach. The description of our experiment and its results is accompanied by a detailed though simplifed derivation of ambient-noise theory, writing out explicitly the relationships between the surface wave Green's function, ambient-noise cross-correlation and phase and group velocities

Original languageEnglish
JournalGeophysical Journal International
Volume192
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)346-358
Number of pages13
ISSN0956-540X
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 26 Mar 2013
Externally publishedYes

    Research areas

  • Crustal structure, Interferometry, Seismic tomography, Theoretical seismology, Time-series analysis

ID: 188757187