Scattering Radiation Pattern Atlas: What anisotropic elastic properties can body waves resolve?

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) optimizes the subsurface properties of geophysical earth models in such a way that the modeled data, based on these subsurface properties, match the observed data. The anisotropic properties, whether monoclinic, orthorhombic, triclinic, or vertical transversally isotropic (VTI), of the subsurface, be it a fractured reservoir or the core-mantle boundary, are necessary to describe the observed wave phenomena. There are no principal limitations on the complexity of the anisotropy that can be inverted using FWI. However, the question remains – what kind of anisotropic descriptions of the elastic properties of the earth can or cannot be inverted reliably from seismic waveforms? We reveal the resolution that can be achieved through reconstructions of each elastic parameter by building vertical resolution patterns from the scattering radiation patterns of body waves. A visual analysis of these patterns indicates