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
UniversityAbstract
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. |