Markov Chain Monte Carlo Simulation to Estimate Material Properties of a Layered Half-space

Abstract

A Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation is proposed for probabilistic full waveform inversion (FWI) in a layered half-space. Dynamic responses on the half-space surface are estimated using the thin-layer method when a harmonic vertical force is applied. Subsequently, a posterior probability distribution function and the corresponding objective function are formulated to minimize the difference between estimations and observed data as well as that of model parameters from prior information. Based on the gradient of the objective function, a proposal distribution and an acceptance probability for MCMC samples are proposed. The proposed MCMC simulation is applied to several layered half-space examples. It is demonstrated that the proposed MCMC simulation for probabilistic FWI can estimate probabilistic material properties such as the shear-wave velocities of a layered half-space.