Numerical modeling of global seismic phases and its application in seismic phase identification

Earthquake data include informative seismic phases that require identification for imaging the Earth's structural interior. In order to identify the phases, we created a numerical method to calculate the traveltimes and raypaths by a shooting technique based upon the IASP91 Earth model, and it can calculate the traveltimes and raypaths for not only the seismic phases in the traditional traveltime tables such as IASP91, AK135, but also some phases such as pPcP, pPKIKP, and PPPPP. It is not necessary for this method to mesh the Earth model, and the results from the numerical modeling and its application show that the absolute differences between the calculated and theoretical traveltimes from the ISAP91 tables are less than 0.1 s. Thus, it is simple in manipulation and fast in computation, and can provide a reliable theoretical prediction for the identification of a seismic phase within the acquired earthquake data.