On the non-uniqueness of the refraction solution

Giireli, O. and Kayiran, T., 2018. On the non-uniqueness of the refraction solution. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 27: 1-27. The seismic refraction method has long been recognized as an efficient tool for obtaining information on subsurfaces. In this paper, we investigate a dipping refractor case and demonstrate that two sets of solutions exist. The determination of the static (weathering) corrections of seismic surveys is largely based on refraction; such a model may be considered to be specific and of limited interest. However, this model has, in fact, been widely utilized since the early days of seismic surveys. It is known that all relevant refraction analyses used to date yield a unique theoretical solution for the researched parameters. In our paper, through a different approach, we demonstrate that it is possible to express the solution of the refraction problem in terms of a second degree equation and according to the behavior of the discriminant to obtain two sets of solutions. Synthetic and real data examples are presented after the theoretical explanation.
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