Viscoelastic Finite Difference Modeling II

Real earth media disperse and attenuate propagating mechanical waves. This anelastic behavior can be described well by a viscoelastic model. We have developed a finite difference simulator to model wave propagation in viscoelastic media. The finite difference method was chosen in favor of other methods for several reasons. Finite difference codes are more portable than pseudo-spectral codes for instance. Moreover, finite difference schemes provide a convenient environment in which to define complicated boundaries. Several finite difference schemes for viscoelastic wave propagation are thoroughly investigated with convergence tests, dispersion and stability analyses. We illustrate our method and the importance of accurately modeling anelastic media through 2-D and 3-D examples from shallow marine environments