Antarctic ice-sheet structures retrieved from P-wave coda autocorrelation method and comparisons with two other single-station passive seismic methods

• Published in: Journal of glaciology Vol. 66; no. 255; pp. 153 - 165
• Main Authors: Yan, Peng, Li, Zhiwei, Li, Fei, Yang, Yuande, Hao, Weifeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.02.2020
• Subjects: Algorithms; Antarctic glaciology; Antarctic ice sheet; Autocorrelation; Earthquakes; glacier geophysics; Glacier ice; Glaciers; Ice; Ice cover; Ice thickness; ice thickness measurements; ice-sheet modeling; Interfaces; Methods; Noise; P waves; Polar environments; Polar regions; Ratios; Seismic activity; Seismic arrays; Seismic exploration; Seismology; Structures; Studies; Thickness; Antarctica; Polar regions
• ISSN: 0022-1430; 1727-5652
• DOI: 10.1017/jog.2019.95

Abstract Passive seismology is becoming increasingly popular for glacier/ice-sheet structure investigations in Polar regions. Single-station passive seismic methods including P-wave receiver functions (PRFs), horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) and a recently proposed autocorrelation method have been used to retrieve glacier/ice-sheet structures. Despite their successful applications, analysis regarding their detection abilities in different glaciological environments has not been reported. In this study, we compare ice thicknesses and v p / v s ratios obtained from the three methods using data collected at GAMSEIS and POLENET/ANET seismic arrays in Antarctica. Ice thickness estimates derived from the three methods are found to be consistent. Comparisons conducted under various model setups, including those involving tiled layers and sedimentary layers, show that the effectiveness of the autocorrelation method is not superior to the PRF method for retrieving ice-sheet structures. The autocorrelation method however can complement other methods as it only requires a single component seismic record.