Exploiting the Potential of Urban DAS Grids: Ambient-Noise Subsurface Imaging Using Joint Rayleigh and Love Waves

Abstract

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) data become important for seismic monitoring of subsurface structures in urban areas. Different from the previous studies that only focused on Rayleigh waves, we report successful observation and analysis of both Rayleigh and Love waves extracted from ambient-noise interferometry, using orthogonal segments of fiber-optic cables in San Jose, California. Theoretical angular responses of DAS ambient-noise cross correlation, together with numerical experiments, help identify DAS channel pairs expected to record stronger Love waves than Rayleigh waves. Based on these waveforms, we further obtain clear Rayleigh- and Love-wave dispersion maps, including both phase and group velocities, with various channel pair orientations. Finally, we perform a joint inversion of Rayleigh- and Love-wave dispersion curves to obtain depth-dependent subsurface velocity structures of the top 100 m. Our inversion result is consistent with the model from the previous study based on Rayleigh-wave dispersion and horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio. In addition, the joint inversion of Love and Rayleigh is more robust than that of the independent inversion of either type of wave. Our new study demonstrates the potential of surface-wave analysis on fiber-optic cables with complex geometry, which can further advance the seismic monitoring of urban areas.