Inversion of a refraction wavefield by imaging in the p-x and v-z planes

Summary. The slowness-distance ( p, x ) plane is an alternative to the slowness-time intercept ( p, τ ) plane as the intermediate image space in inversion of seismic refraction data. The production of a ( p, x ) image from travel time-distance ( T, x ) data has been presented elsewhere so emphasis here is on ( p, x ) to velocity-depth ( v, z ) transformation. Iterative downward continuation of a ( p, x ) image converges to the correct ( v, z ) image in a manner similar to that in the widely used ( p, τ ) to ( v, z ) process. Application to a real refraction data set from the Imperial Valley of southern California gives a similar ( v, z ) solution via both ( p, x ) and ( p, τ ) images.