ACOUSTIC DAYLIGHT IMAGING
Kees Wapenaar
Department of Applied Earth Sciences
Section of Applied Geophysics and Petrophysics
Principle of acoustic daylight imaging
In Figure 1a, a number of uncorrelated natural noise sources in the Earth’s subsurface radiate acoustic waves to
the surface. Suppose the transmitted upgoing wave fields are observed at two positions x A and xB at the surface.
Then by crosscorrelating these noise traces, we obtain the reflection response of the subsurface measured at
position xB, as if there was an impulsive source at xA (or vice versa). A simple proof is given in reference [1] and
some numerical examples in [15] and [24]. When there are sufficient receivers measuring the natural noise, one
could in principle construct the reflection response for many source and receiver positions and image the
subsurface in the same way as is normally done with active seismic measurements. Using passive seismic
measurements for imaging the subsurface was coined “acoustic daylight imaging” by Claerbout. He showed
already in 1968 that for a horizontally layered medium the reflection response can be derived from the
autocorrelation of the transmission response. ASTRON proposes to develop a synthetic radio telescope, called
LOFAR (Low Frequency Array), with 13000 stations distributed over the Netherlands (Figure 1b). This network
provides a unique opportunity to develop a permanent seismic imaging and monitoring network (PERSIMMON),
designed for monitoring 3-D structures and processes in the subsurface of the Netherlands. High quality
multicomponent geophones for monitoring the first 30 kilometers as well as the upper mantle (up to 100
kilometers) will be co-located with the radio antennas and share the same networking and computing
infrastructure. The acoustic daylight imaging technique discussed above will be employed for imaging the
subsurface.
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General relations between reflection and transmission responses
The crosscorrelation principle we discussed above is a special case of a class of mutual relations between
reflection and transmission responses of inhomogeneous media, including their codas due to internal
multiple scattering. These relations can be found in reference [2], where they are derived from general
reciprocity relations for downgoing and upgoing wave fields. Apart from the relations for acoustic
daylight imaging, in this paper we discuss a method for deriving the transmission coda from the reflection
measurements (which is useful for seismic imaging schemes that account for internal multiple scattering).
Furthermore, following the same approach, we obtain Berkhout’s relations for multiple elimination and
Schuster’s relations for seismic interferometry. Last, but not least, we obtain expressions for the reflection
response at a boundary below an inhomogeneous medium, which may be useful for imaging the medium
‘from below’. This will be further investigated in a joint FOM-Shell project.
Figure 1: (a) Principle of acoustic daylight imaging. Transmission responses, observed at x A and xB, due to
a distribution of uncorrelated white noise sources. Their crosscorrelation yields the reflection response
observed at xA, as if there were an impulsive point source at xB. (b). Synthetic radio telescope, proposed
by Astron (courtesy prof. H. Butcher). Geophones will be placed at each station to enable permanent
seismic imaging and monitoring (PERSIMMON) of the subsurface.
Contributed papers, presentations, etc. in 2002
Journal papers
[1] Wapenaar, C.P.A.; 2002, Synthesis of an inhomogeneous medium from its acoustic transmission
response. Geo-physics (accepted)
[2] Wapenaar, C.P.A., J.W. Thorbecke, D. Draganov; 2002, Relations between reflection and
transmission re-sponses of 3-D inhomogeneous media. Geoph. J. Int. (accepted).
[3] Wapenaar, C.P.A., J.T. Fokkema; 2002, Reciprocity theorems for diffusion, flow and waves.
A.S.M.E. Journal of Applied Mechanics (submitted).
[4] Fokkema, J.T., C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Integration between 4D and reservoir fluid flow properties, J.
Seism. Expl., Vol. 11, p. 1-4.
[5] Mercerat, E.D., C.P.A. Wapenaar, J.T. Fokkema, M.W.P. Dillen; 2002, Scaling behaviour of the
acoustic transmission response of Rotliegend sandstone under varying ambient stress, J. Seism. Expl.,
Vol. 11, p. 137-158.
[6] Dillen, M.W.P., J.T. Fokkema, C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Recursive elimination of temporal contrasts
between time-lapse acoustic wave fields, J. Seism. Expl., Vol. 11, p. 41-58.
[7] Denneman, A.I.M., G.G. Drijkoningen, D.M.J. Smeulders, C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Reflection and
transmission of waves at a fluid/porous-medium interface, Geophysics, Vol. 67, p. 282-291.
[8] Ferreira, M.S., G.E.W. Bauer, C.P.A. Wapenaar, C.P.A.; 2002, Recursive Green functions technique
applied to the propagation of elastic waves in layered media, Ultrasonics, Vol. 40, p. 355-359.
[9] Zhang, J., C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Wave field extrapolation and prestack depth migration in anelastic
inhomogeneous media, Geophysical Prospecting, Vol. 50, p. 629-643.
[10] Schalkwijk, K.M., C.P.A. Wapenaar, D.J. Verschuur; 2002, Adaptive decomposition of multicomponent ocean-bottom seismic data into down- and upgoing P- and S-waves. Geophysics
(accepted).
[11] Kruk, J. van der, C.P.A. Wapenaar, J.T. Fokkema, P.M. van den Berg; 2002, Three-dimensional
imaging of multi-component ground penetrating radar data. Geophysics (accepted).
[12] Zhang, J., C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Wave field extrapolation and AVA migration in highly
discontinuous media. Geoph. J. Int. (accepted).
[13] Wapenaar, C.P.A., M.W.P. Dillen, J.T. Fokkema; 2002, Reciprocity theorems for electromagnetic
one-way wave fields in 2-D inhomogeneous media. Subsurface Sensing Technologies and
Applications (accepted).
[14] Kruk, J. van der, C.P.A. Wapenaar, J.T. Fokkema, P.M. van den Berg; 2002, Improved threedimensional image reconstruction technique for multi-component ground penetrating radar data.
Subsurface Sensing Technologies and Applications(accepted).
Conferences and workshops
[15] Wapenaar, C.P.A., D. Draganov, J.W. Thorbecke, J.T. Fokkema; 2002, Theory of acoustic daylight
imaging revisited, 72nd annual SEG meeting, Salt Lake City, .p 2269-2272.
[16] Zhang, J., C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, AVA correction for migration in highly discontinuous media,
72nd annual SEG meeting, Salt Lake City, p. 1380-1383.
[17] Ranada Shaw, A., D. van der Burg, E.C. Slob, C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, The electro-kinetic effect:
forward model and measurements, 72nd annual SEG meeting, Salt Lake City, p. 704-707.
[18] Verhelst, F., C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Scale-dependency of Thomsen parameters for layers with
intermediate thickness, 72nd annual SEG meeting, Salt Lake City, p. 1947-1950.
[19] Wapenaar, C.P.A., D. Draganov, J.T. Fokkema; 2002, Codas in reflection and transmission responses
and their mutual relations, 64th annual EAGE meeting, Florence, C-030 (4 pages).
[20] Kruk, J. van der, C.P.A. Wapenaar, J.T. Fokkema, P.M. van den Berg; 2002, Three-dimensional
imaging of multi-component ground-penetrating radar data. PIERS 2002, Cambridge, Massachusetts,
p. 430.
[21] Draganov, J.W. Thorbecke, C.P.A. Wapenaar; 2002, Acoustic daylight imaging: theory and
modelling results using cross-correlation. Workshop on Passive Seismic Imaging; 72nd annual SEG
meeting, Salt Lake City.
Supervision and co-supervision of M.Sc. thesis
[22] Burg, D. van der; 2002, Source decomposition and receiver composition for electrokinetic
measurements. M.Sc. thesis, Delft University of Technology.
[23] Brouwer, F.G.C.; 2002, A proposal for an estimation of sea-bottom parameters using Scholte waves.
M.Sc. thesis, Delft University of Technology.
[24] Draganov, D; 2002, Passive seismic imaging using cross-correlation: theory and modeling results
M.Sc. thesis, Delft University of Technology.