Inversion of near-field waveform data for earthquake source rupture process (I): Method and numerical test

A new inversion algorithm for simultaneously reconstructing the slip vectors and rupture times of a propagating finite fault is developed based on the recent progress in the nonlinear programming study. To check the validity of this new inversion algorithm, several numerical tests are conducted. The results show that this new source rupture process inversion algorithm is computationally efficient and numerically stable, and depends less on the initial model compared with the two popular inversion methods, i.e. the linear matrix method and the global stochastic search method. Therefore, this new inversion algorithm is expected to be useful in inverting earthquake rupture processes.