Viscoacoustic wave propagation in 2-D random media and separation of absorption and scattering attenuation

Abstract

Wave theoretical analysis of scalar, time‐harmonic waves propagating in a constant density medium with isotropic, random velocity fluctuations and being scattered mainly in the forward direction yields a simple and robust procedure that combines the logarithm of the mean wave amplitude with the mean logarithm of the wave amplitude to perform a separation of scattering attenuation and absorption effects. Finite‐difference simulations of wave propagation in 2-D random media with a Voigt‐body rheology illustrate the evolution of wave field fluctuations and demonstrate that the separation procedure works for a wide range of seismic albedos. In the case of no absorption, the logarithms of seismic amplitudes will have a nonlinear dependence on the travel distance if the wavefield fluctuations are small compared to the amplitude of the coherent field. If these fluctuations are large, the logarithms of seismic amplitudes will tend to constant levels independent of the travel distance. In the case of random viscoacoustic media and at propagation distances larger than the inverse of the scattering coefficient of the coherent field, and apart from geometrical spreading, the overall amplitude decrease will be predominated by absorption, even if the absorption coefficient is one order smaller than the scattering coefficient of the coherent field.