Analysis of Surface Wave Phase Velocity and Azimuth Anomalies using Wave Gradiometry for USArray

Abstract:

We investigate the phase velocity and surface wave arrival angle anomalies observed on the US Array Transportable Array (TA) incorporating wave gradiometry (WG) and frequency wavenumber (fk) methods. For WG, there are two crucial points: computing the spatial gradient over a subarray and acquiring an accurate reference station amplitude. In order to get a stable spatial gradient with small error we use up to a fifth order Taylor's series expansion of the wavefield for subarrays of 22 stations or more. Reference station amplitudes are regularized using a beam forming method to increase the SNR. Synthetic surface waves are generated using the SPECFEM3D globe algorithm with models S362ANI and CRUST2.0 with additional random ambient noise added as input. Stability in WG parameters are tested assuming different reducing sloweness. Stability of phase velocity estimates is improved by incorporating the higher order Taylor series terms. In application to stations of the TA, outcomes from WG and fk all show similar arrival angle anomalies. However, phase velocity determined from fk is higher and is spatially coarser than results from WG. Performance of WG improves with decreasing frequency as expected. Using this analysis flow, WG gives stable results for waves generated by earthquakes from different directions. Comparison of synthetic and observed maps of azimuth and phase velocity anomaly shows general agreement although some important local differences are observed. These differences will provide invaluable information for improving understanding of Earth structure. An approach for using WG parameters in Earth model inversion is outlined based on our stability analysis.