Staggered mesh for the anisotropic and viscoelastic wave equation

Abstract

Computation of the spatial derivatives with nonlocal differential operators, such as the Fourier pseudospectral method, may cause strong numerical artifacts in the form of noncausal ringing. This situation happens when regular grids are used. The problem is attacked by using a staggered pseudospectral technique, with a different scheme for each rheological relation. The nature and causes of acausal ringing in regular grid methods and the reasons why staggered‐grid methods eliminate this problem are explained in papers by Fornberg (1990) and Özdenvar and McMechan (1996). Thus, the objective here is not to propose a new method but to develop the algorithm for the viscoelastic and transversely isotropic (VTI) wave equation, for which the technique can be implemented without interpolation. The algorithm is illustrated for one physical situation that requires very high accuracy, such as a fluid‐solid interface, where very large contrasts in material properties occur. The staggered‐grid solution is noise free in the dynamic range where regular grids generate artifacts that may have amplitudes similar to those of physical arrivals.