Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty

Surface-wave tomography is crucial for mapping upper-mantle structure in poorly instrumented regions such as the oceans. However, data sparsity and errors lead to tomographic models with complex resolution and uncertainty, which can impede meaningful physical interpretations. Accounting for the ful...

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Main Authors: Franck Latallerie, Christophe Zaroli, Sophie Lambotte, Alessia Maggi, Andrew Walker, Paula Koelemeijer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: McGill University 2025-08-01
Series:Seismica
Subjects:
Online Access:https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/1407
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author Franck Latallerie
Christophe Zaroli
Sophie Lambotte
Alessia Maggi
Andrew Walker
Paula Koelemeijer
author_facet Franck Latallerie
Christophe Zaroli
Sophie Lambotte
Alessia Maggi
Andrew Walker
Paula Koelemeijer
author_sort Franck Latallerie
collection DOAJ
description Surface-wave tomography is crucial for mapping upper-mantle structure in poorly instrumented regions such as the oceans. However, data sparsity and errors lead to tomographic models with complex resolution and uncertainty, which can impede meaningful physical interpretations. Accounting for the full 3D resolution and robustly estimating model uncertainty remains challenging in surface-wave tomography. Here, we propose an approach to provide direct control over the model resolution and uncertainty and to produce these in a fully three-dimensional framework by combining the Backus-Gilbert-based SOLA method with finite-frequency theory. Using a synthetic setup, we demonstrate the reliability of our approach and illustrate the artefacts arising in surface-wave tomography due to limited resolution. We also indicate how our synthetic setup enables us to discuss the theoretical model uncertainty (arising due to assumptions in the forward theory), which is often overlooked due to the difficulty in assessing it. We show that the theoretical uncertainty components may be much larger than the measurement uncertainty, thus dominating the overall uncertainty. Our study paves the way for more robust and quantitative interpretations in surface-wave tomography.
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series Seismica
spelling doaj-art-bf43feb170ea4db998f9ad068f83fa982025-08-20T03:05:42ZengMcGill UniversitySeismica2816-93872025-08-014210.26443/seismica.v4i2.1407Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertaintyFranck Latallerie0Christophe Zaroli1Sophie Lambotte2Alessia Maggi3Andrew Walker4Paula Koelemeijer5University of OxfordUniversity of StrasbourgUniversity of StrasbourgUniversity of StrasbourgUniversity of OxfordUniversity of Oxford Surface-wave tomography is crucial for mapping upper-mantle structure in poorly instrumented regions such as the oceans. However, data sparsity and errors lead to tomographic models with complex resolution and uncertainty, which can impede meaningful physical interpretations. Accounting for the full 3D resolution and robustly estimating model uncertainty remains challenging in surface-wave tomography. Here, we propose an approach to provide direct control over the model resolution and uncertainty and to produce these in a fully three-dimensional framework by combining the Backus-Gilbert-based SOLA method with finite-frequency theory. Using a synthetic setup, we demonstrate the reliability of our approach and illustrate the artefacts arising in surface-wave tomography due to limited resolution. We also indicate how our synthetic setup enables us to discuss the theoretical model uncertainty (arising due to assumptions in the forward theory), which is often overlooked due to the difficulty in assessing it. We show that the theoretical uncertainty components may be much larger than the measurement uncertainty, thus dominating the overall uncertainty. Our study paves the way for more robust and quantitative interpretations in surface-wave tomography. https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/1407seismic tomographyinverse theorysurface waves and free oscillationsuncertainty quantification
spellingShingle Franck Latallerie
Christophe Zaroli
Sophie Lambotte
Alessia Maggi
Andrew Walker
Paula Koelemeijer
Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
Seismica
seismic tomography
inverse theory
surface waves and free oscillations
uncertainty quantification
title Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
title_full Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
title_fullStr Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
title_full_unstemmed Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
title_short Towards surface wave tomography with 3D resolution and uncertainty
title_sort towards surface wave tomography with 3d resolution and uncertainty
topic seismic tomography
inverse theory
surface waves and free oscillations
uncertainty quantification
url https://seismica.library.mcgill.ca/article/view/1407
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AT alessiamaggi towardssurfacewavetomographywith3dresolutionanduncertainty
AT andrewwalker towardssurfacewavetomographywith3dresolutionanduncertainty
AT paulakoelemeijer towardssurfacewavetomographywith3dresolutionanduncertainty