PhD Student Sea-Eun Park Publishes Paper on Utah FORGE Site Velocity Modeling in The Leading Edge by SEG

[Jeonju=GeoVis] Sea-Eun Park, a Ph.D. student at the Computational Geophysics Lab (JBCGL) of Jeonbuk National University, has published a new research paper in The Leading Edge, a renowned journal published by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), the world's largest applied geophysics society, on April 2, 2025.

The newly published paper, titled "Enhancing P-wave velocity model at the Utah FORGE EGS site using traveltime tomography and full-waveform inversion of 2D DAS-VSP and 3D surface seismic data," is a study that further refines the P-wave velocity structure of the Utah FORGE Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) demonstration site in the USA.

By integrally utilizing 2D Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS-VSP) data and 3D surface seismic survey data, Park sequentially applied travel-time tomography and Full-Waveform Inversion (FWI) techniques. This approach maximizes the advantages of each different type of data, dramatically improving the accuracy of the P-wave velocity model, which is essential for microseismic monitoring and geothermal reservoir characterization.

This research was conducted as part of an international joint study with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with Dr. Nori Nakata participating as a co-advisor. Park explained the significance of her research, stating, "It is highly meaningful that we were able to derive complementary results by integrally analyzing various types of seismic data and ultimately build a highly reliable subsurface velocity model."

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: Enhancing P-wave velocity model at the Utah FORGE EGS site using traveltime tomography and full-waveform inversion of 2D DAS-VSP and 3D surface seismic data
• Journal: The Leading Edge
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1190/tle44040256.1