Vertical seismic profile sonde coupling
P-wave and S-wave displacements occur at high angles of incidence in vertical seismic profiles (VSPs). Therefore, the coupling of a geophone sonde to the borehole wall must be rigid in all directions. A sonde that is well coupled should have no resonant frequency within the seismic band and should provide geophone outputs that accurately represent the earth’s ground motion. An in‐situ coupling response experiment conducted under normal VSP field conditions provides a measure of the sonde‐to‐borehole wall coupling. The sonde is locked in the borehole and a surface source is excited at different offsets and azimuths. An analysis of the P-wave direct arrivals enhances damped oscillations that represent an estimate of the coupling impulse response. This response is characterized by the viscoelastic behavior of a Kelvin model related to the complex compliance [Formula: see text], where κ is the elastic spring constant, η is the damping constant, and ω is the angular frequency. The complex modulus κ−iωη is proportional to the contact width of the sonde with the borehole wall. Increasing the width by a factor of 4.5 causes a similar increase in κ−iωη where the resonant frequency and initial amplitude of the coupling impulse response increase by a factor of two. Also, the initial amplitude of the coupling impulse response appears to be inversely proportional to the locking force of the sonde. For a constant contact width, increasing the locking force by a factor of 1.37 decreases the amplitude of the response by 3.5 dB.