Deblurring of frequency-wavenumber images from small-scale seismic arrays

Temporary arrays installed in urban areas for investigating the upper-most geological structure typically comprised of a limited number of stations and are arranged in geometries constrained by environmental boundaries. Therefore, it is expected that the frequency-wavenumber images are significantly blurred by the array transfer function and are corrupted by noise. In this paper, the effect of theRichardson-Lucy regularization method applied to the problem of deblurring frequency-wavenumber images is investigated. The images are computed by analysing data from two small-aperture 2-D arrays, installed with different configurations in a test-site within the town of Potenza (Southern Italy) for near-surface investigations. We show that removing the effects of the array response from the frequency-wavenumber images improve the phase-velocity estimation, reducing the relevant level of uncertainty. Furthermore, the Richardson-Lucy regularization method is effective in reducing the level of noise related to spatial aliasing by eliminating spurious peaks, allowing the maxima related to different seismic sources to be better discriminated.