Seismic Noise H / V Spectral Ratio Can Be Inverted Jointly with Receiver Functions

The possibility of jointly inverting the receiver function waveforms and the seismic noise horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio to study the Earth’s structure is substantiated. Both data types are widely used for constructing a velocity model beneath a single seismic station. The main difference between the methods is associated with the different frequency content of input data which is 0.02–0.2 Hz in receiver functions and 0.5–20 Hz in seismic noise. It is shown that notwithstanding these differences, the joint inversion approach more effectively reconstructs the model of the medium in case when a station is underlain by a complexly structured sedimentary cover. In the practical implementation, the parameters of both seismic methods are described in a flat-layer representation of the medium. Besides, both methods are most sensitive to the depth distribution of S -wave velocities. In this work, we use records from the Monakovo seismic station, Nizhny Novgorod region, Russia, to construct a model of the medium consistent with both data types. It is shown that the allowance for the H / V spectral curve in the receiver function interpretation provides additional constraints on the small-scale structure of the upper part of the velocity section thus stabilizing the reconstruction procedure.