Characteristics of the horizontal component of Rayleigh waves in multimode analysis of surface waves

In surface-wave analysis, S-wave velocity estimations can be improved by the use of higher modes of the surface waves. The vertical component of P-SV waves is commonly used to estimate multimode Rayleigh waves, although Rayleigh waves are also included in horizontal components of P-SV waves. To demonstrate the advantages of using the horizontal components of multimode Rayleigh waves, we investigated the characteristics of the horizontal and vertical components of Rayleigh waves. We conducted numerical modeling and field data analyses rather than a theoretical study for both components of Rayleigh waves. As a result of a simulation study, we found that the estimated higher modes have larger relative amplitudes in the vertical and horizontal components as the source depth increases. In particular, higher-order modes were observed in the horizontal component data for an explosive source located at a greater depth. Similar phenomena were observed in the field data acquired by using a dynamite source at 15-m depth. Sensitivity analyses of dispersion curves to S-wave velocity changes revealed that dispersion curves additionally estimated from the horizontal components can potentially improve S-wave velocity estimations. These results revealed that when the explosive source was buried at a greater depth, the horizontal components can complement Rayleigh waves estimated from the vertical components. Therefore, the combined use of the horizontal component data with the vertical component data would contribute to improving S-wave velocity estimations, especially in the case of buried explosive source signal.