Seismic Rays and Ray Intensities in Inhomogeneous Anisotropic Media

Summary A ray series expansion for seismic body waves propagating in inhomogeneous anisotropic media is studied. Methods for calculation of rays and amplitude coefficients of the ray series are suggested. A seismic ray is described by a system of ordinary differential equations of first order which can be solved by standard numerical techniques. Another system of ordinary differential equations can be used to compute amplitude coefficients. The method may be applied to general anisotropic media in which the elastic parameters are arbitrary continuous functions of all three co-ordinates.