DRISTI: Distributed Real-Time In-Situ Seismic Tomographic Imaging

Seismic tomographic imaging is a complex process for imaging the subsurface geological structures. It involves massive data acquisition, signal processing and computing. Traditionally, the voluminous data is logged in each station then manually gathered to a centralized location for post processing. It may take months to see the subsurface image. To see real-time subsurface dynamics, we developed a Distributed Real-Time In-Situ Seismic Tomographic Imaging (DRISTI) system. Unlike the traditional system, it has smart in-situ processing and computing capability that can compute seismic images in real-time. Additionally, each station is equipped with a low-power radio unit that enables collaborative signal processing via a mesh network. We demonstrate the capability of this system by performing experiments with real seismic data traces as well as outdoor experiments. The evaluation shows that the DRISTI system can generate the results that match the ones obtained from a traditional centralized processing. The result from an outdoor hammer shock field experiment using DRISTI system align with the scientific facts and it is able to image the subsurface characteristics.