SCEC Award Number 15150 View PDF
Proposal Category Individual Proposal (Integration and Theory)
Proposal Title Numerically Testing Two Approaches of Extracting the Amplitudes of Ambient-Field Green’s Functions in the SCEC CVM-S4.26
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Shuo Ma San Diego State University
Other Participants
SCEC Priorities 6e, 6a, 6c SCEC Groups GMP, USR, CME
Report Due Date 03/15/2016 Date Report Submitted 03/14/2016
Project Abstract
We test the amplitude of station-to-station ambient-field Green’s functions in southern California ob-tained from three different approaches: correlation, deconvolution, and correlation of coda of correlation (C3). These approaches produce nearly identical Green’s functions if the amplitude is discarded. In regions where the 1D velocity structure is a good approximation the correlation and C3 approaches yield the approximate geometric spreading effect of surface wave due to a point source at the surface, while deconvolution does not. In the Los Angeles basin, however, all three approaches fail to predict the basin amplification although the Green’s functions have a remarkable waveform similarity with the ones calculated by a finite element method in the SCEC CVM 4.0 showing clear basin amplification. The virtual coda of correlations, consisting of multiply scattered waves between stations, produce Green’s functions of greatest symmetry between causal and anticausal time lags, rendering the C3 approach the best possible candidate to extract robust amplitude of the Green’s functions. Our tests show that the amplitude from the C3 approach is insensitive to the length of virtual coda used and temporal/frequency normalizations. New signal processing techniques are needed if robust amplitude of the Green’s functions can be obtained from the ambient seismic field.
Intellectual Merit Robust amplitudes of ambient-field Green’s functions are crucial when these Green’s functions are used in the virtual earthquake approach. More validation and tests seem needed given the high potential of this approach in which real earthquakes and knowledge of detailed velocity structures are not necessary.
Broader Impacts The results from this project provide important tests of the ambient-field Green’s functions to be used in the virtual earthquake approach. This is in line with the important long-term SCEC goal of strong ground motion prediction. This project also helped the training of one master student at SDSU.
Exemplary Figure Figure 3
Linked Publications

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  • Nie, S., & Ma, S. (2018, 08). Testing the Amplitude of Ambient-field Green’s Function by Simulated Scattered Waves in a 3D Sedimentary Basin . Poster Presentation at 2018 SCEC Annual Meeting. SCEC Contribution Number 8586