While in other domains of applied geophysics the surface‐wave is considered a source of information for near‐surface characterization, in the seismic industry the so‐called ground roll has been traditionally regarded only as coherent noise to be filtered out as soon as possible. This difference of perspective is mainly due to the limitations of conventional land acquisition. The Rayleigh waves, which constitute a large part of the recorded energy, can be acquired properly, analysed and inverted to characterize the near‐surface with a surprisingly high resolution, even in large 3D surveys, with point receiver acquisition. Surface waves can play a new role: they contribute to a better near‐surface characterization for the perturbation correction and can be used for velocity modelling and geological modelling. Their proper identification enables alternative filtering strategies. Surface waves are not coherent noise but a signal that can be lifted from the seismic record and exploited in a variety of well‐established geophysical solutions. In this paper we discuss a workflow for the analysis, inversion and attenuation of surface waves with 3D land data, showing examples from a land 3D survey in Egypt.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.