Some benefits of multicomponent land seismic streamer data on a road surface for surface and body wave analysis

We examine 2-c seismic land streamer data obtained on city streets for both shear wave velocity measurements and body wave reflection information. We find that ray bending from the high velocity asphalt layer requires the use of vertical and radial components to optimally extract high frequency reflection information. While the longer wavelength surface waves may be less sensitive to a thin high velocity near surface layer, we utilize the radial and vertical component measurements to optimize Rayleigh wave dispersion information for shear wave velocity inversion. Because the road material provides a constant high velocity surface medium, the relatively predictable (frequency-dependent) emergent ray angle allows us to more confidently separate surface and body wave signals.