To apply scattering theory we need to transform the pressure field into a displacement field. The pressure wavefield obeys the scalar wave equation
The P wave displacement is related to the pressure by the following expression:
Recalling that the medium (water) is homogeneous and that the displacement field is irrotational, we can use the relation and combine the two previous equations to get
This equation relates the displacement vector field to the scalar pressure field and can be rewritten in the following form:
And after a double spatial Fourier transform, it will be expressed by
Finally, the displacement amplitude of the upcoming P wave on the water can be expressed as a function of the upcoming pressure field:
or
Figure shows how the upcoming P and S waves are scattered at the ocean bottom interface. The displacement amplitude of the upcoming pressure field just above the sea floor can be expressed as functions of the displacement amplitudes of all the incident waves:
(6) |
The two remaining terms in equation (6) (which correspond to the P and S wavefields) can be reasonably separated by the use of the critical angle for P waves at the first layer as a discriminant factor (Cunha, 1989), as illustrated on Figure . Waves of the type PPPP, PPSP and PSPP will be found only with horizontal slownesses smaller than the slowness corresponding to the ocean floor critical angle for P waves (30 degrees on the figure), while only the PSSP mode will be found at higher horizontal slownesses. As a first approach we consider that only the dominant mode (PPPP) is present for pre-critical horizontal slownesses.
Under these assumptions, a ``P-sensible receiver" coupled at the sea bottom would record a displacement
(7) |
(8) |