Inversion of Love-wave data for velocity and anelasticity using exact kernels

Summary. The general problem of inverting Love-wave dispersion and amplitude data to obtain a velocity and Q_s structure is considered. A formulation is used which incorporates attenuation into the Haskell-Thompson matrix method in an exact manner and thus retains the inherent non-linearity in the anelasticity. The resulting exact inversion kernels allow simultaneous inversion for velocity and intrinsic attenuation parameters. The method is applied to synthetic data which allows a comparison to be made with inexact kernels. The results indicate that the use of inexact kernels may introduce spurious oscillations into the Q_s structure and that a simultaneous inversion can be more stable than inverting for velocity alone.