PHASE‐DISTORTIONLESS FILTERING
Phase‐distortionless filtering is accomplished readily in a magnetic delay‐line filter. The necessary and sufficient condition for the elimination of phase distortion is a symmetrical unit‐impulse response or operator. Three‐, six‐, nine‐, and twelve‐point operators were selected from an analytical filter for which the unit‐impulse response is symmetrical. These were applied in a delay‐line filter achieved in conventional magnetic‐tape playback equipment. Advantages of phase‐distortionless filtering demonstrated here are (1) elimination of frequency‐dependent time lags and (2) identification of time‐invariant points of seismic events on a multifiltered seismogram display. The latter should faciliate the correlation of reflections between seismometer group positions and interlocking seismograms. Filtering with each of the above four operators demonstrated that the three‐point operator performs nearly as effectively as the six‐, nine‐, and twelve‐point operators.