Seismic receiver coupling to the seafloor

The presence of geophysical receivers on the seafloor changes the local wave field due to the receiver seafloor interaction. The resulting PP- and PS-wave distortion of the wave field is often referred to as receiver coupling to the seafloor and can make data processing challenging and sometimes impossible. This paper provides an overview of the mathematical approaches to describe receiver coupling, how to estimate receiver coupling and what the difficulties and possible solutions are. The first section shows how the mathematical approach developed from a simple model considering only the vertical receiver component to include all three receiver components and their interactions with the seafloor. In the second section, I show how receiver coupling can be measured and how it can be improved using mathematical and data-driven approaches.