TY - JOUR A1 - Rumpf, Michael A1 - Tronicke, Jens T1 - Assessing uncertainty in refraction seismic traveltime inversion using a global inversion strategy JF - Geophysical prospecting N2 - To analyse and invert refraction seismic travel time data, different approaches and techniques have been proposed. One common approach is to invert first-break travel times employing local optimization approaches. However, these approaches result in a single velocity model, and it is difficult to assess the quality and to quantify uncertainties and non-uniqueness of the found solution. To address these problems, we propose an inversion strategy relying on a global optimization approach known as particle swarm optimization. With this approach we generate an ensemble of acceptable velocity models, i.e., models explaining our data equally well. We test and evaluate our approach using synthetic seismic travel times and field data collected across a creeping hillslope in the Austrian Alps. Our synthetic study mimics a layered near-surface environment, including a sharp velocity increase with depth and complex refractor topography. Analysing the generated ensemble of acceptable solutions using different statistical measures demonstrates that our inversion strategy is able to reconstruct the input velocity model, including reasonable, quantitative estimates of uncertainty. Our field data set is inverted, employing the same strategy, and we further compare our results with the velocity model obtained by a standard local optimization approach and the information from a nearby borehole. This comparison shows that both inversion strategies result in geologically reasonable models (in agreement with the borehole information). However, analysing the model variability of the ensemble generated using our global approach indicates that the result of the local optimization approach is part of this model ensemble. Our results show the benefit of employing a global inversion strategy to generate near-surface velocity models from refraction seismic data sets, especially in cases where no detailed a priori information regarding subsurface structures and velocity variations is available. KW - Inversion KW - Seismic refraction KW - Uncertainty Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2478.12240 SN - 0016-8025 SN - 1365-2478 VL - 63 IS - 5 SP - 1188 EP - 1197 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Asari, Seiki A1 - Wardinski, Ingo T1 - On magnetic estimation of Earth's core angular momentum variation JF - Journal of geophysical research : Solid earth N2 - We study systematically the estimation of Earth's core angular momentum (CAM) variation between 1962.0 and 2008.0 by using core surface flow models derived from the recent geomagnetic field model C(3)FM2. Various flow models are derived by changing four parameters that control the least squares flow inversion. The parameters include the spherical harmonic (SH) truncation degree of the flow models and two Lagrange multipliers that control the weights of two additional constraints. The first constraint forces the energy spectrum of the flow solution to follow a power law l-p, where l is the SH degree and p is the fourth parameter. The second allows to modulate the solution continuously between the dynamical states of tangential geostrophy (TG) and tangential magnetostrophy (TM). The calculated CAM variations are examined in reference to two features of the observed length-of-day (LOD) variation, namely, its secular trend and 6year oscillation. We find flow models in either TG or TM state for which the estimated CAM trends agree with the LOD trend. It is necessary for TM models to have their flows dominate at planetary scales, whereas TG models should not be of this scale; otherwise, their CAM trends are too steep. These two distinct types of flow model appear to correspond to the separate regimes of previous numerical dynamos that are thought to be applicable to the Earth's core. The phase of the subdecadal CAM variation is coherently determined from flow models obtained with extensively varying inversion settings. Multiple sources of model ambiguity need to be allowed for in discussing whether these phase estimates properly represent that of Earth's CAM as an origin of the observed 6year LOD oscillation. KW - Core KW - Earth rotation KW - Inversion KW - Geomagnetic field KW - rapid variations KW - Geodynamo Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JB011458 SN - 2169-9313 SN - 2169-9356 VL - 120 IS - 10 SP - 6740 EP - 6757 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER -