Imaging of seismic sources by time-reversed wave propagation with staggered-grid finite-difference method

지진원 영상화를 위한 엇갈린 격자 유한 차분법을 이용한 지진파 역행 전파 모의

We present a imaging method of seismic sources by time reversal propagation of seismic waves. Time-reversal wave propagation is actively used in medical imaging, non destructive testing and waveform tomography. Time-reversal wave propagation is based on the time-reversal invariance and the spatial reciprocity of the wave equation. A signal is recorded by an array of receivers, time-reversed and then back-propagated into the medium. The time-reversed signal propagates back into the same medium and the energy refocuses back at the source location. The increasing power of computers and numerical methods makes it possible to simulate more accurately the propagation of seismic waves in heterogenous media. In this work, a staggered-grid finite-difference solution of the elastic wave equation is employed for the wave propagation simulation. With numerical experiments, we show that the time-reversal imaging will enable us to explore the spatio-temporal history of complex earthquake.