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Comparison of the fast sweeping and fast marching methods for first-arrival P-wave traveltime calculation in attenuating VTI media

ZHENCONG ZHAO,  JINGYI CHEN* ,  MENGXIU WANG
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Seismic Anisotropy Group, Department of Geosciences, The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK 74104, U.S.A.,
JSE 2020, 29(5), 403–424;
Submitted: 9 June 2025 | Revised: 9 June 2025 | Accepted: 9 June 2025 | Published: 9 June 2025
© 2025 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Zhao, Z.C., Chen, J. and Wang, M.X., 2020. Comparison of the fast sweeping and fast marching methods for first-arrival P-wave traveltime calculation in attenuating VTI media. Journal of Seismic Eploration, 29: 403-424. First-arrival traveltime plays a crucial role in many geophysical applications such as static correction, tomography and prestack migration. Eikonal equation has been proven as an effective tool to calculate the first-arrival traveltime even in complex subsurface media. In attenuating media, eikonal equation can provide not only the information of first-arrival traveltime, but also amplitude decay. The real part of the complex-valued traveltime corresponds to seismic phase, while its imaginary part describes seismic attenuation due to energy absorption. Since the Fast Sweeping and Fast Marching methods have been considered as two effective eikonal equation solvers, it is necessary to compare them for the performances of calculating the complex-valued first- arrival P-wave traveltime in attenuating vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media. The numerical tests show that the Fast Sweeping method is less time-consuming than the Fast Marching method, while having the same numerical accuracy.

Keywords
eikonal equation
attenuation
transverse isotropic
Fast Sweeping method
Fast Marching method
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing
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