Inversion of P-SV seismic data

In a layered elastic material, density, shear velocity, and compressional velocity can be found at any depth from broadband surface measurements at two distinct, nonzero, precritical values of plane‐wave incidence angle. Layer‐stripping inversion uses three‐component surface velocity measurements generated by a polarized surface source to determine subsurface properties incrementally. The surface velocity measurements initialize a first‐order, nonlinear, matrix Riccati equation (derived from the elastic wave equation) which takes advantage of an attractive fixed‐point condition in the complex frequency plane to extract subsurface mechanical impedances. Subsurface density and velocities are recovered from the inverted impedances at two or more plane‐wave incidence angles. General properties of the matrix Riccati equation in the complex frequency plane aid in incorporating bandwidth constraints. Inversion of synthetic plane wave data from a piece‐wise continuous model illustrates inversion effects when only a finite bandwidth is available and when different compressional and shear wavelength distance scales are present.