Mrinal Sen's
Research Interests
I am primarily interested in developing techniques for seismogram synthesis and imaging, and estimation of rock properties from geophysical data. During my graduate studies I worked on asymptotic methods for seismogram synthesis. You can essentially choose one of the two methods for seismogram synthesis: Exact (or more exact) methods such as the reflectivity methods, which are limited to the type of earth model you can use or Asymptotic methods (such as Ray theory and its variants) where you can use fairly realistic earth models. Of course, you can use finite differences to compute seismograms for fairly complex geologic models but they are slow. Over the last decade, the speed of computers has increased by several orders of magnitude - 3D FD seismograms will probably be used routinely in near future. As computers get faster, we find problems to work on, that need even faster machines. There is no scarcity of such problems in Geophysics. I enjoy developing mathematical and numerical tricks that help make computation faster.
Seismic Migration or Imaging is an art - they are based on wave propagation models. One with a good background in theory can contribute well in this field. Much of the ideas are intuitive - they work amazingly well. The potential of the plane wave methods for imaging has not been explored well. For example it is trivial to extend plane wave theory to include the effects of anisotropy and multi-component data. Much of my current research is focussed on this aspect.
Geophysical inverse problems are an active area of research. Since joining UTIG, I worked on several geophysical parameter estimation problems. We were able to demonstrate that global optimization methods such as simulated annealing (SA) and genetic algorithm (GA) can be used effectively to several geophysical applications such as the seismic waveform inversion problem. I also showed how one could apply Gibbs' sampling and Metropolis rule to characterize uncertainties and the posterior probability density function (PPD) in model space. We are actively pursuing this area of research with application to seismic reflection data from gas hydrates, global seismology, seismic tomography, and anisotropic parameter estimation.
I occasionally develop parallel algorithms for seismic processing, and model earthquake seismograms for large scale earth structures. Jay Pulliam and I are studying seismograms from deep focus earthquakes to constrain anisotrpoic structures of D".
Geophysics is a lot of fun. It is an exciting field to be in - it is truly interdisciplinary. We borrow ideas and techniques developed in Physics, Math, Statistics, Computer Science, Electrical Engg and Biology - to name a few, and apply them to several geophysical problems. Of course the main objective is to solve geologic problems. I would consider it a waste of time to develop a technique that does not work on real data.
Publications in 2009
1. Liu, Yang and M. K. Sen, 2009, A new time-space domain finite-difference method for acoustic wave propagation, Journal of Computational Physics, In Press.
2. Liu, Yang and M. K. Sen, 2009, An implicit staggered-grid finite-difference method for seismic modeling, Geophysical Journal International, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04305.x.
3. Sil, S., and M. K. Sen, 2009, Seismic critical angle anisotropy analysis in tau-p domain, Geophysics, 74(4), A53-A57.
4.
Vedanti, N., and M.
K. Sen, 2009, Seismic inversion tracks in-situ combustion: a case study
from Balol field,
5. Liu, Yang and M. K. Sen, 2009 A practical implicit finite difference method: example from seismic modeling, Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 6, 231-249.
6. Ma, J., M. K. Sen, and X. Chen, 2009, Multiple attenuation using inverse data processing in the coupled plane wave domain, Geophysics, 74(4), V75-V81.
7. Jin, L., M. K. Sen, and P. L. Stoffa, 2009, Fusion based classification method and its application, Journal of Seismic Exploration, 18(2), 103-117.
8. DeBabsabe, J., and M. K. Sen, 2009, New developments in finite element methods of seismic wave propagation simulation, invited paper, special section on seismic modeling, The Leading Edge, invited paper, special section on seismic modeling, 28(5), 562-567. [One of the 10 research articles with the most full-text downloads during the month of May 2009]
9. Sen, M. K. and A. Pal, 2009, A reflectivity method for laterally varying media: homogeneous layers with curved interfaces, Geophysical Journal International, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2009.04172.
10. Liu, Yang and M. K. Sen, 2009, Numerical modeling of wave equation by truncated high-order finite difference method, Earthquake Science, 22, 205-213.
11. Ma, J., M. K. Sen, and X. Chen, 2009, Multiple attenuation using inverse data processing in the plane wave domain, Chinese J. of Geophysics (in Chinese with English abstract), 52(3), 808-816.
12.
Hong, T., and M. K. Sen, 2009, A new MCMC algorithm for seismic waveform
inversion and corresponding uncertainty analysis, Geophysical Journal International, doi: 10.1111/j.1365246X.2008.04052.x.
13. Jin, L., P. L. Stoffa , M. K. Sen, and R. Seif, 2009, Pilot point parameterization in stochastic inversion for reservoir properties using time-lapse seismic and production data, Journal of Seismic Exploration, 18, 1-20.
14. Dutta, U., M. K. Sen, N. N. Biswas, and Y. Zang, 2009, Investigation of shallow sedimentary structure of the anchorage basin, Alaska, using simulated annealing inversion of site response data, Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 99(1), 326-339.
15. Sil, S., and M. K. Sen, 2009, Azimuthal tau-p analysis in a weak orthorhombic medium, Journal of Seismic Exploration, 18, 81-91.
16.
DeBabsabe, J. and
M. K. Sen, 2009, Comments on a paper
“Dispersion analysis of spectral element method for elastic wave propagation,”
G. Seriani and S. P. Oliveira, Wave
Motion, 46, 92-93.
Expanded Abstracts in 2009
Sen, M K., 2009, Use of marine multi-component seismic data in the estimation of elastic properties of shallow sediments, Invited paper to be presented at the workshop on ‘multi-component seismic data’ at the SEG annual meeting, Houston, TX..
DeBasabe, J., and M. K. Sen, 2009, Continuous and
discontinuous finite element methods for elastic wave propagation, SEG annual
meeting,
Miah, K. H, and M. K. Sen, 2009, Grid dispersion
minimization in Green’s tensor used in Scattering Integral inversion method,
SEG annual meeting,
Ma, J, M. K. Sen, and X. Chen, 2009, Free surface multiple attenuation using inverse data processing in the coupled plane-wave domain: field data example, SEG annual meeting, Houston, TX.
Sil, S., R. P.
Srivastava, and M. K. Sen, 2009,
Observation of azimuthal anisotropy on multi-component Atlantis node seismic
data, SEG annual meeting,
Srivastava , R. P. and M. K. Sen, 2009, Stochastic pre-stack
seismic inversion using fractal prior, SEG annual meeting,
Liu, Y. and M. K. Sen, 2009, Acoustic VTI modeling
by a new time-space domain high-order finite difference method, SEG annual
meeting,
Sena, A, M. K. Sen, P. L. Stoffa, R. Seif and L. Jin, 2009, Joint inversion of time-lapse seismic and production data using VFSA with Local Thermal Regulation and pilot point parameterizatios, SEG annual meeting, Houston, TX.
Sena, A, P. L. Stoffa, M. K. Sen, and R. Seif, 2009, Assessing the value of time-lapse seismic data in joint inversion for reservoir parameter estimation in an oil reservoir subjected to water flooding recovery: a synthetic example, SEG annual meeting, Houston, TX.
A. Ciucivara, and, M. K. Sen, 2009, A reflectivity method
for laterally varying media, SEG annual meeting,
Rajput,S., M. K. Sen, and S. Chopra, 2009, Seismic
indicators of gas hydrates and free gas, SEG annual meeting,
Smith, D. R., M.K. Sen and R.J. Ferguson, 2009,
Optimized Regularization and Redatuming
by Conjugate Gradients, EAGE meeting,
Yang Liu and M. K. Sen, 2009, 2D acoustic wave equation modeling with a
new high-accuracy time-space domain finite-difference stencil, EAGE meeting,
Yang Liu and M. K. Sen, 2009, A new time-space domain high-order
finite-difference method for acoustic wave equation, SEG Beijing
meeting,
