The seismic noise wavefield is not diffuse

Passive seismology is burgeoning under the apparent theoretical support of diffuse acoustics. However, basic physical arguments suggest that this theory may not be applicable to seismic noise. A procedure is developed to establish the applicability of the diffuse field paradigm to a wavefield, based on testing the latter for azimuthal isotropy and spatial homogeneity. This procedure is then applied to the seismic noise recorded at 65 sites covering a wide variety of environmental and subsoil conditions. Considering the instantaneous oscillation vector measured at single triaxial stations, the hypothesis of azimuthal isotropy is rejected in all cases with high confidence, which makes the spatial homogeneity test unnecessary and leads directly to conclude that the seismic noise wavefield is not diffuse. However, such a conclusion has no practical effect on passive imaging, which is also possible in non-diffuse wavefields. (C) 2012 Acoustical Society of America. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.3689551]