Application of the Wiener-Hopf technique to the calculation of the diffraction of a cylindrical wave by a soft half-plane embedded in a fluid half-space

Wavelets currently are estimated directly from the data by statistical mean s or, for marine data, by direct measurement with deep hydrophones. The fir st method, based on statistical arguments, uses the convolution model of se ismic traces as the starting point. In addition, it also assumes whiteness of the earth's reflectivity series and the minimum-phase character of the w avelet. The second method does not work very well for shallow seas because of interference with reflections by the seafloor. In a companion paper, an algorithm for the estimation of wavelets of marine sources has been present ed. The algorithm starts from the reduced wave equation to describe the mea sured field and an auxiliary field. Physically, the auxiliary field, also k nown as the Green's function, is the wavefield configuration of a line sour ce and a soft halfplane in a fluid half-space. The calculation of this Gree n's function is the subject of this paper.