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Radioscience Seminars

EE 350 Radioscience Seminar
Professor Howard Zebker
Autumn 2003-2004

Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2003
Time: 4:15 PM – Refreshments at 4:00
Location: Bldg. TC SEQ, Room 101

Imaging the Earth's subsurface with seismic waves
Dr. Robert Clapp
Dept. of Geophysics, Stanford University

Abstract
Obtaining accurate pictures of the earth's subsurface plays an important role in mapping ground water, detecting hydrocarbons, and determining crustal structure. Sending and recording sound waves (seismic waves) has proven to be an effective technique to obtain these images. Using the seismic waves, recorded at the earth's surface, to obtain an image of the earth's subsurface poses significant computational and algorithmic challenges.

We deal with data volumes in the gigabyte to terabyte range and perform operations that are n^3 or more in cost. Even these massive data volumes and expensive operators aren't sufficient to produce an accurate image. We are hampered by a lack of data and the approximations we must make in processing to make it computationally feasible. Dealing with the massive data volume and coming up with new algorithms that are both efficient and effective provide continual research challenges.