Demonstration of super-resolution and super-stacking properties of time reversal mirrors in locating seismic sources

We demonstrate with synthetic seismic data the super-resolution and super-stacking properties of time reversal mirrors (TRM). Tests on synthetic data show that TRM has the potential of exceeding the Rayleigh resolution limit by a factor of more than 9. This property is accompanied by the fact that TRM has a significant resilience to strong noise. Computer tests validate these properties by accurately imaging the source location from passive seismic data with signal-to-noise ratio of about 0.001. Results also validate that TRM enhances signal by a factor proportional to √N T/T_o where N is the number of records, T_o is the dominant period of the source wavelet, and T is the recording time of a trace. This enhancement property is denoted as super-stacking and greatly exceeds the √N enhancement predicted by stacking alone. Super-resolution and super-stacking are properties also enjoyed by seismic interferometry and reverse-time migration (RTM) with the exact velocity model.