3D diffraction modeling of singly scattered acoustic wavefields based on the combination of surface integral propagators and transmission operators

Abstract

We present an improved method for modeling 3D acoustic wavefields scattered at smooth curved interfaces. The approach is based on a high-frequency approximation of surface integral propagators and a correct description of their boundary values in terms of transmission operators. The main improvement is a uniform local approximation of these operators in the form of effective reflection and transmission coefficients. We show that the effective coefficients represent a generalization of the plane-wave coefficients widely used in conventional seismic modeling, even for the case of curved reflectors, nonplanar wavefronts, and finite frequencies. The proposed method is capable of producing complex wave phenomenas, such as caustics, edge diffractions, and head waves. Seismograms modeled for even simple models reveal significant errors implicit in the plane-wave approximation. Comparison of modeling based on effective coefficients with the analytic solution reveals errors less than 4% in peak amplitude at seismic frequencies.