High-order time discretizations in seismic modeling

Seismic modeling plays an important role in explor-ation geophysics. High-order modeling schemes are in demand for practical reasons. In this context, I present three kinds of high-order time discretizations: Lax-Wendroff methods, Nyström methods, and splitting methods. Lax-Wendroff methods are based on the Taylor expansion and the replacement of high-order temporal derivatives by spatial derivatives, Nyström methods are simplified Runge-Kutta algorithms, and splitting methods comprise substeps for one-step computation. Based on these methods, three schemes with third-order and fourth-order accuracy in time and pseudospectral discretizations in space are presented. I also compare their accuracy, stability, and computational complexity, and discuss advantages and shortcomings of these algorithms. Numerical experiments show that the fourth-order Lax-Wendroff scheme is more efficient for short-time simulations while the fourth-order Nyström scheme and the third-order splitting scheme are more efficient for long-term computations.