PhD Student Sea-Eun Park Publishes Velocity Modeling Paper on the Utah FORGE Geothermal Site in IEEE TGRS

[Jeonju=GeoVis] Sea-Eun Park, a Ph.D. student at the Computational Geophysics Lab (JBCGL) of Jeonbuk National University, has once again demonstrated her research capabilities by publishing a new research paper in the world-renowned journal IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (IEEE TGRS) on March 20, 2025. IEEE TGRS is a top-tier journal in the fields of geoscience and remote sensing, ranking within the top 5% of Q1 journals.

The newly published paper, titled "P-Wave Velocity Model at Utah FORGE Geothermal Field Using Travel-Time Tomography of DAS-VSP Data," precisely delineates the P-wave velocity structure of the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) demonstration site in Utah, USA.

By combining Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) data and applying 2D travel-time tomography, Park successfully imaged the subsurface velocity structure in two dimensions. The accurate P-wave velocity model obtained from this study will be crucial for precisely monitoring microseismic events at the site and for evaluating the efficiency and stability of the hydraulic stimulation process for geothermal energy extraction.

This research was conducted through close international collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with Dr. Nori Nakata participating as a co-advisor. "It was an invaluable experience to be able to work with real data from the FORGE site, the world's largest geothermal energy research project," said Park. "I hope this research contributes to the advancement of geothermal energy development technology, which is gaining attention as a next-generation eco-friendly energy source."

This research was supported by the Energy Human Resources Development Program of the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP).

Paper Information:

• Title: P-Wave Velocity Model at Utah FORGE Geothermal Field Using Travel-Time Tomography of DAS-VSP Data
• Journal: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2025.XXXXXXX (Link is an example and needs to be updated with the actual DOI)