2D Global Attenuation Model of the Upper Mantle from Combined Analysis of Surface Wave Phase and Amplitude Data

Abstract:

We have developed a technique that uses a cluster analysis method to measure Rayleigh wave phase and amplitude anomalies. The measurements are made on the vertical components of all permanent stations recording LHZ data from IRIS. We currently consider earthquakes with Ms>5.5 between 1990 and 2007. Joint inversions for 2D phase velocity and attenuation maps are performed, allowing the coupling through physical dispersion (e.g. Zhou 2009). As demonstrated in Dalton and Ekstrom (2006), correcting the effect of focusing-defocusing is crucial in order to obtain reliable attenuation structures. Ray theory, which has been used to date, may not give reliable predictions of such effects, because it depends strongly on short wavelength velocity structures and so is very sensitive to how the phase velocity maps are smoothed. Instead, we use the 2D finite frequency amplitude kernel (Zhou et al, 2004) to model the focusing-defocusing effect. Attenuation models and evaluations of model error and resolution will be presented.