INVERSE SCATTERING OF SURFACE-WAVES - A NEW LOOK AT SURFACE CONSISTENCY

A method is presented for eliminating near-surface scattered noise fro m seismic data. Starting from an appropriately chosen background model , a surface-consistent scattering model is determined using linearized elastodynamic inverse scattering theory. This scattering model does n ot necessarily equal the actual scatterer distribution, but it enables one to calculate, approximately, the near-surface scattered part of t he data. The method honors at least some of the complexity of the near -surface scattering process and can be applied in cases where traditio nal methods, like wavenumber-frequency filtering techniques and method s for static corrections, are ineffective. From a number of tests on s ynthetic data, we conclude that the method is rather robust; its main sensitivity is because of errors in the determination of the backgroun d Rayleigh-wave velocity.