A short course on receiver function analysis and H-k (H-V) stacking

Required softwares: SAC, TauP, octave, GMT

Required programs:
RF related codes: in /home/shung/shortcourse/RF/programs
Other miscellaneous codes: in /home/shung/shortcourse/PROGRAMS.330 which contains Computer
Program in Seismology (CPS) package obtained from http://www.eas.slu.edu/eqc/eqc_cps/getzip.html.

A. P receiver function analysis

1. Prepare data in SAC format
Write 1-D model predicted P arrival times at header “T0” of SAC files, which can be done by TauP
or ttimes (for IASP91 model only) programs.

2. Pre-processing seismograms using SAC: done by script preproc_seis.sh

(a) Apply bandpass filter and cut waveforms around P arrivals
*for iterative deconvolution, make sure to have P arriving after the beginning time of your cut trace.
Here Here we choose to cut -30 to 120 s before and after 1-D model predicted P arrivals written in
header T0.
*for water level deconvolution, leave 80 s before P to better characterize the noise level.
The program calculates N/R=std(noise amplitude in (-80s, -20s)/ max. signal amplitude in (-3s, 3 s).
(b) rotate N and E component to R and T component

3. Perform iterative deconvolution using iterdecon program or water-level spectral division using
pwaveqn program by Ammon
Step 2 and 3 are done in bash shell scripts
iterdecon_rt.sh and wldecon_rt.sh

4. Check the quality of obtained RFs

For RFs obtained with iterative deconvolution, run script qualcheckRF_iterdecon.sh to retain those
with the variance reduction between (RF*Obs_Z) and Obs_R (stored in header USER9 of ouput SAC
file) > a given value (~70%)
For RFs obtained with spectral division, run script qualcheckRF_wldecon.sh to retain those with N/S
(stored in header USER9) > a given ratio (~0.3)

5. Stack RFs with distance

5. Perform H-k analysis: octave software will be needed!

Before carrying out the H-k analysis, you can choose to stack RFs in every narrow distance range to
enhance S/N ratios and reduce the number of RFs. If RFs exhibit strong back-azimuthal variations, H-k
analysis has to be done separately for RFs at different back azimuths.

Run script corehk.sh, output file ppk stores 6-column outputs (H, Vp/Vs, normalized cumulative sum
of amplitudes, predicted Ps, PpPs, and PpSs+PsPs times) in an increasing order of column 3.

Plotting scripts:
plot_hk.sh: make a H-k contour/image plot
plot-PRF-Baz.sh: plot individual or stacked P RFs as a function of backazimuth
B. S-receiver function analysis:
(1) Align and determine SV arrivals using AIMBAT or other phase aligned softwares\s. Write the
picked arrival times at header “T3” of SAC files. Cut the waveforms at least 100 s before and 120 s
after the picked S arrivals.
(2) Use script fstrans_psv.sh to transform 3-component N, E, Z to P, SV, and SH components on the
wavevector reference frame based on the free-surface transformation rule by Reading et al. (2003,
GRL)
(3) Run script mtdecon.sh to apply a bandpass filter of 0.03-0.5 Hz to perform ETMTRF (extended-
time multi-taper cross-correlation receiver function)
(4) Run del-stack-SRF.sh to stack RFs at every 5 degree distance to enhance S/R ratios. The stacked
SRFs will be put in sfinals folder.
(5) Run scorehk.sh to perform h-k analysis for S RFs and plot the h-k results. Output file ssk stores 6-
column outputs (H, Vp/Vs, normalized cumulative sum of amplitudes, predicted Sp, SsPp, and
SsSp times) in an increasing order of column 3.

Plotting script:
plot-SRF-Baz.sh: : plot individual or stacked S RFs as a function of backazimuth

C. H-V stacking
(1) Run PRF-predtime.sh to calculate Ps, PpPs and PpSs+PsPs arrival times for the optimal estimate
of H and Vp/Vs from H-k stacking result.
(2) Run SRF-predtime.sh to calculate Sp, SsPp,, and SsSp arrival times for the optimal estimate of H
and Vp/Vs from H-k stacking result
(3) run hv-map.2sh and hv-map.3.sh to combine any two pairs of three equations as a function of 3
variables (H, Vp, Vs) to find the intersection point on (H-Vp), (H-Vs), and (Vp-Vs) planes. Use
hvplot.sh to plot the results.