| Summary: | <p>Seismology is one of the few geophysical probes which allows us to peer beneath the surface of a planet, moon, or star and map its structures and properties at a variety of scales and resolutions. This makes it a technique of enormous scientific power. Its application, however, suffers from problems of mathematical ill-posedness and poor conditioning. To alleviate some of these difficulties, we turn to computational seismic modelling.</p>
<p>Seismic modelling is not without its own challenges, of cost and complexity, which have limited its applications. In this thesis, material will be presented which advances the frontiers of seismic modelling, especially in the domain of coupled solid-fluid media. Application of these improvements offers the opportunity to better understand the seismic behaviour, and hence the interior structures, of the worlds in question.</p>
<p>In this thesis, we will cover advances in the seismic modelling of the Earth’s oceans, Mars’ atmosphere, the Sun, and other stars. The first five data chapters will cover the generation and analysis of synthetic data from the Earth, Mars (three times) and the Sun respectively. We will examine the influence that the oceans and their bathymetry have on surface wave propagation, followed by a presentation of results from the Oxford Seismology team’s participation in the blind test for the NASA InSight mission to Mars. Next, we will present modelling which was used to inform InSight’s attempts to detect the arrival of the Perseverance Rover in February 2021, followed by the results from this unique experiment.</p>
<p>The penultimate chapter covers the extension of similar techniques to modelling seismic wave propagation in the Sun, and finally we will explore whether aster- oseismic techniques may be used to study the internal configuration of the λ Boötis class of stars.</p>
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