Introduction to radiative transfer of seismic waves

Ludovic Margerin (1, 2)

1 UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes
2 LGIT - Laboratoire de Géophysique Interne et Tectonophysique

We present a detailed introduction to radiative transfer in seismology. Starting from the well-known phenomenological approach for acoustic waves, the theory is then generalized to elastic waves, including the treatment of polarization and mode conversions. The last part of the paper presents a first-principle derivation of the acoustic transfer equation. The fundamental quantities of transport theory such as the specific intensity and the mean free path are then rigorously defined in terms of the statistical properties of the medium and wavefield. Some applications of the theory are discussed.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Ludovic Margerin. Introduction to radiative transfer of seismic waves. Seismic Earth: Array Analysis of Broadband Seismograms. (2005), Geophys. Monogr. Ser., 2005, 157, pp.229-252. ⟨10.1029/157GM14⟩. ⟨insu-03607155⟩