Application of constrained polarization filtering for surface-wave mitigation: Three case studies
We applied constrained polarization filtering (CPF) to surface-wave mitigation on data sets from different geologic settings. The method derives from the application of polarization filtering in the time-frequency (t-f) domain and introduces new constraints to effectively detect and mitigate surface waves while protecting the signal. We use these constraints that we derive from velocity, amplitude, time, and frequency information to delineate the t-f region dominated by surface-wave noises. Then, we restrict the application of polarization filtering to this region to avoid damaging the signal. Straightforward application of polarization filtering without these constraints results in ineffective filtering or damage to the signal, due to the complexity of surface-wave wavetrains. The performance of CPF with these various data sets is demonstrably superior compared to the unconstrained approach. There are some of the issues that may affect performance of the CPF, but they can be overcome.