Recent progress in numerical methods and computer science allows us
today to simulate the propagation of seismic waves through realistically
heterogeneous Earth models with unprecedented accuracy. Full waveform
tomography is a tomographic technique that takes advantage of numerical
solutions of the elastic wave equation. The accuracy of the numerical
solutions and the exploitation of complete waveform information result
in tomographic images that are both more realistic and better resolved.
This book develops and describes state of the art methodologies covering
all aspects of full waveform tomography including methods for the
numerical solution of the elastic wave equation, the adjoint method, the
design of objective functionals and optimisation schemes. It provides a
variety of case studies on all scales from local to global based on a
large number of examples involving real data. It is a comprehensive
reference on full waveform tomography for advanced students, researchers
and professionals.