Modeling Seismic Noise Body Waves

Abstract:

Secondary microseismic noise is generated by non-linear interactions between ocean waves at the ocean surface. The sources correspond to pressure fluctuations close to the ocean surface. They generate acoustic waves in the ocean, which are then converted into P, SV, and Rayleigh waves in the deeper Earth layers. Rayleigh waves are the most energetic noise signal but body wave amplitude can be extracted using beamforming analysis. We analyze several typhoons recorded by the Southern California Seismic Network and we show that the detected P-wave amplitudes are frequency dependent.

In order to understand the body wave generation mechanism, we model the P-wave amplitude. The sources are the power spectral density of the pressure derived from the ocean wave interaction model. They are distributed along the ocean surface and they are frequency dependent. We then compute the site effect of the ocean layer upon body waves generated by the noise sources. The site effect can be described as the constructive interference of multiply reflected P waves in the ocean that are then converted to P waves at the ocean–crust interface. It varies with frequency and ocean depth. Finally we compute the propagation from the source area to the network by taking into account seismic attenuation and geometrical spreading.

We show that the modeled P-wave amplitude reproduce well the frequency dependent variations of the measured P-wave. This frequency dependent effect is due to both the source and site effect. We define the effective source as the product of the power spectral density of the pressure close to the surface and the site effect. We show that its maximum is consistent with the source location obtained by back projecting the slowness derived from the beamforming analysis. Finally, we show that body wave analysis enable to efficiently constrain the amount of sources generated by ocean wave reflected at the coast.