Boundary and elastic parameter sensitivity kernels for a receiver function waveform misfit in a global earth.

The receiver function method is widely used in seismology to study the characteristics of Earth’s major discontinuities. Ray theory and an assumed planar incoming wave are often used to estimate which regions of the mantle, crust and discontinuity contribute to the receiver function. To test the validity of these simplifying assumptions, we derived the adjoint source of a receiver function waveform misfit and applied the adjoint method on synthetic teleseismic receiver functions to calculate their sensitivity kernels of both subsurface velocity parameters in the mantle and boundary topography on the discontinuity. Here we focused on the P660s-phase and the 660-discontinuity. We observe a strong sensitivity to the wavefield far away from the discontinuity, particularly for the Vp sensitivity kernel. It has a strong sensitivity to the Fresnel zone of the P660s-phase before conversion, but also to the scatterers of the direct P-wave and other phases that arrive within the considered time window. This implies that mapping the observations solely to the P660s ray paths and ray-theoretical conversion points might be too simplistic and lead to inaccuracies in the conclusions. In general, a receiver function has a strong dependance on the background velocity models everywhere in the mantle. The boundary topography kernels have a sensitivity predominantly to the area near the conversion point. The diameter of the high-sensitivity area is roughly 300 km for an event with a source halftime of 5 s. Relatively weak sensitivity to the source region and the scatterers of the direct P-wave are observed in the boundary kernels as well. Our results show that using the adjoint method on receiver function waveforms to invert for mantle structure and boundary topography is possible and advisable. It allows for an automatic consideration of all contributing phases and scatterers arriving within the chosen time window, which is important for correctly dealing with velocity perturbations. The boundary kernels demonstrate that the receiver functions’ sensitivity to topography is concentrated to the region around the ray theoretical conversion point.