Near-surface Characterization Using a Roadside Distributed Acoustic Sensing Array

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how roadside Distributed Acoustic Sensing arrays can effectively characterize near-surface shear-wave velocities by utilizing surface waves from various seismic sources, offering a cost-effective and automated alternative to traditional geophysical methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for shear-wave velocity inversion using DAS arrays, extending frequency range with earthquake data, and automating the inversion process with a new objective function.

Findings

Inverted shear-wave velocity models match traditional geophone surveys.

Extended frequency range improves depth coverage and resolution.

Automated inversion process reduces manual effort and increases reliability.

Abstract

Thanks to the broadband nature of the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) measurement, a roadside section of the Stanford DAS-2 array can record seismic signals from various sources. For example, it measures the earth's quasi-static distortion caused by the weight of cars (<0.8 Hz), and Rayleigh waves induced by earthquakes (<3 Hz) and by dynamic car-road interactions (3-20 Hz). We directly utilize the excited surface waves for shallow shear-wave velocity inversion. Rayleigh waves induced by passing cars have a consistent fundamental mode and a noisier first mode. By stacking dispersion images of 33 passing cars, we obtain stable dispersion images. The frequency range of the fundamental mode can be extended by adding the low-frequency earthquake-induced Rayleigh waves. Thanks to the extended frequency range, we can achieve better depth coverage and resolution for shear-wave velocity inversion. In order to assure clear separation from Love waves and aligning apparent velocity with phase velocity, we choose an earthquake that is approximately in line with the array. The inverted models match those obtained by a conventional geophone survey performed by a geotechnical service company contracted by Stanford University using active sources from the surface until about 50 meters. In order to automate the Vs inversion process, we introduce a new objective function that avoids manual dispersion curve picking. We construct a 2-D Vs profile by performing independent 1-D inversions at multiple locations along the fiber. From the low-frequency quasi-static distortion recordings, we invert for a single Poisson's ratio at each location along the fiber. We observe spatial heterogeneity of both Vs and Poisson's ratio profiles. Our approach is dramatically cheaper than ambient field interferometry and reliable estimates can be obtained more frequently as no lengthy cross-correlations are required.