| Abstract: | Consider the mathematical model of a horizontally layered system subject to an initial downgoing source pulse in the upper layer and to the condition that no upgoing waveforms enter the layered system from below the deepest interface. The downgoing waveform (as measured from its first arrival) in each layer is necessarily minimum-phase. The net downgoing energy in any layer, defined as the difference of the energy spectrum of the downgoing wave minus the energy spectrum of the upgoing wave, is itself in the form of an energy spectrum, that is, it is non-negative for all frequencies. The z-transform of the autocorrelation function corresponding to the net downgoing energy spectrum is called the net downgoing spectral function for the layer in question. The net downgoing spectral functions of any two layers A and B are related as follows: the product of the net downgoing spectral function of layer A times the overall transmission coefficient from A to B equals the product of the net downgoing spectral function of layer B times the overall transmission coefficient from B to A. The net downgoing spectral function for the upper layer is called simply the spectral function of the system. In the case of a marine seismogram, the autocorrelation function corresponding to the spectral function can be used to recursively generate prediction error operators of successively increasing lengths, and at the same time the reflection coefficients at successively increasing depths. This recursive method is mathematically equivalent to that used in solving the normal equations in the case of Toeplitz forms. The upgoing wave-form in any given layer multiplied by the direct transmission coefficient from that layer to the surface is equal to the convolution of the corresponding prediction error operator with the surface seismogram. The downgoing waveform in this given layer multiplied by the direct transmission coefficient from that layer to the surface is equal to the convolution of the corresponding hindsight error operator (i.e., the time reverse of the prediction error operator) with the surface seismogram. |
