Leighton Watson
Department of Geophysics at Stanford University, USA
Wave propagation is important for many geophysical applications including (1) volcanic eruptions, which excite sound waves in the atmosphere, and (2) seismic air guns, which are devices that release highly pressurized air into the water during marine seismic surveys to excite acoustic waves in the ocean to image earth structure.
In this talk I will discuss how we can simulate wave propagation from volcanoes and seismic air guns. We utilize the summation-by-parts framework with high-order finite differences. This method enables us to design numerical schemes that mirror the continuous problem allowing us to derive energy estimates and prove stability. I will focus on volcanic eruptions and seismic air guns but the numerical tools presented are applicable to a wide range of wave propagation phenomena in geophysics and other fields.