SVD and Median Filters: Smoothing Seismic P-Wave Tomograms

Seismic ray-tracing traveltime tomography (SRTT) requires the application of some kind of smoothing procedure to the output tomograms, in order to proceed to a subsequent ray-tracing iteration. In this research, the outcomes related to the application of both SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) and median filters to smooth acoustic tomograms have been summarized. When allowing for their individual employment, median filtering has shown to present higher performance than SVD filtering in the sense that it was able to preserve structural geologic features. On the other hand, joint application of both filters has resulted to be the most efficient procedure to smooth output velocity tomograms, mainly when dealing with horizontal layering.