Asymptotic wave-splitting in anisotropic linear acoustics

TL;DR

This paper develops an explicit asymptotic wave-splitting method for anisotropic linear acoustics, accounting for spatial variations and providing both approximate and true amplitude decompositions, improving modeling of seismic wave propagation.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, explicit asymptotic wave-splitting procedure for anisotropic media that includes spatial variation and yields a true amplitude wave-field decomposition.

Findings

Provides an explicit asymptotic representation of the admittance operator.

Derives a wave-splitting method applicable to smoothly varying anisotropic media.

Enables more accurate seismic wave modeling in anisotropic subsurface conditions.

Abstract

Linear acoustic wave-splitting is an often used tool in describing sound-wave propagation through earth's subsurface. Earth's subsurface is in general anisotropic due to the presence of water-filled porous rocks. Due to the complexity and the implicitness of the wave-splitting solutions in anisotropic media, wave-splitting in seismic experiments is often modeled as isotropic. With the present paper, we have derived a simple wave-splitting procedure for an instantaneously reacting anisotropic media that includes spatial variation in depth, yielding both a traditional (approximate) and a `true amplitude' wave-field decomposition. One of the main advantages of the method presented here is that it gives an explicit asymptotic representation of the linear acoustic-admittance operator to all orders of smoothness for the smooth, positive definite anisotropic material parameters considered here. Once the admittance operator is known we obtain an explicit asymptotic wave-splitting solution.