@article{HaendelOhrnbergerKrueger2016, author = {H{\"a}ndel, Annabel and Ohrnberger, Matthias and Kr{\"u}ger, Frank}, title = {Extracting near-surface Q(L) between 1-4 Hz from higher-order noise correlations in the Euroseistest area, Greece}, series = {Geophysical journal international}, volume = {207}, journal = {Geophysical journal international}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0956-540X}, doi = {10.1093/gji/ggw295}, pages = {655 -- 666}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Knowledge of the quality factor of near-surface materials is of fundamental interest in various applications. Attenuation can be very strong close to the surface and thus needs to be properly assessed. In recent years, several researchers have studied the retrieval of attenuation coefficients from the cross correlation of ambient seismic noise. Yet, the determination of exact amplitude information from noise-correlation functions is, in contrast to the extraction of traveltimes, not trivial. Most of the studies estimated attenuation coefficients on the regional scale and within the microseism band. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to derive attenuation coefficients from seismic noise at much shallower depths and higher frequencies (> 1 Hz). The Euroseistest area in northern Greece offers ideal conditions to study quality factor retrieval from ambient noise for different rock types. Correlations are computed between the stations of a small scale array experiment (station spacings < 2 km) that was carried out in the Euroseistest area in 2011. We employ the correlation of the coda of the correlation (C-3) method instead of simple cross correlations to mitigate the effect of uneven noise source distributions on the correlation amplitude. Transient removal and temporal flattening are applied instead of 1-bit normalization in order to retain relative amplitudes. The C-3 method leads to improved correlation results (higher signal-to-noise ratio and improved time symmetry) compared to simple cross correlations. The C-3 functions are rotated from the ZNE to the ZRT system and we focus on Love wave arrivals on the transverse component and on Love wave quality factors Q(L). The analysis is performed for selected stations being either situated on soft soil or on weathered rock. Phase slowness is extracted using a slant-stack method. Attenuation parameters are inferred by inspecting the relative amplitude decay of Love waves with increasing interstation distance. We observe that the attenuation coefficient gamma and Q(L) can be reliably extracted for stations situated on soft soil whereas the derivation of attenuation parameters is more problematic for stations that are located on weathered rock. The results are in acceptable conformance with theoretical Love wave attenuation curves that were computed using 1-D shear wave velocity and quality factor profiles from the Euroseistest area.}, language = {en} } @article{LontsiJoseSanchezSesmaCamilloMolinaVillegasetal.2015, author = {Lontsi, Agostiny Marrios and Jose Sanchez-Sesma, Francisco and Camillo Molina-Villegas, Juan and Ohrnberger, Matthias and Kr{\"u}ger, Frank}, title = {Full microtremor H/V(z,f) inversion for shallow subsurface characterization}, series = {Geophysical journal international}, volume = {202}, journal = {Geophysical journal international}, number = {1}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0956-540X}, doi = {10.1093/gji/ggv132}, pages = {298 -- 312}, year = {2015}, abstract = {The H/V spectral ratio has emerged as a single station method within the seismic ambient noise analysis field by its capability to quickly estimate the frequency of resonance at a site and through inversion the average profile information. Although it is easy to compute from experimental data, its counter theoretical part is not obvious when building a forward model which can help in reconstructing the derived H/V spectrum. This has led to the simplified assumption that the noise wavefield is mainly composed of Rayleigh waves and the derived H/V often used without further correction. Furthermore, only the right (and left) flank around the H/V peak frequency is considered in the inversion for the subsurface 1-D shear wave velocity profile. A new theoretical approach for the interpretation of the H/V spectral ratio has been presented by Sanchez-Sesmaet al. In this paper, the fundamental idea behind their theory is presented as it applies to receivers at depth. A smooth H/V(z, f) spectral curve on a broad frequency range is obtained by considering a fine integration step which is in turn time consuming. We show that for practical purposes and in the context of inversion, this can be considerably optimized by using a coarse integration step combined with the smoothing of the corresponding directional energy density (DED) spectrum. Further analysis shows that the obtained H/V(z, f) spectrum computed by the mean of the imaginary part of Green's function method could also be recovered using the reflectivity method for a medium well illuminated by seismic sources. Inversion of synthetic H/V(z, f) spectral curve is performed for a single layer over a half space. The striking results allow to potentially use the new theory as a forward computation of the H/V(z, f) to fully invert the experimental H/V spectral ratio at the corresponding depth for the shear velocity profile (Vs) and additionally the compressional velocity profile (Vp) using receivers both at the surface and in depth. We use seismic ambient noise data in the frequency range of 0.2-50 Hz recorded at two selected sites in Germany where borehole information is also available. The obtained 1-D Vs and Vp profiles are correlated with geological log information. Results from shallow geophysical experiment are also used for comparison.}, language = {en} }