Seismic Waves

Introduction
Seismology is the study of the passage of elastic waves
(see below) through the earth. Earthquake seismology is
the best tool to study the interior of the earth.
When an earthquake or explosion occurs, part of the
energy released is as elastic waves that are transmitted
through the earth.
The waves are then detected and recorded by
seismograms, which measure, amplify and record the
motion of the ground.
The information is then used to determine earthquake
locations, the subsurface structures and etc.

This pendulum-mounted seismograph records horizontal

motion. The mass is coupled to the Earth by means of a
pendulum and a pivot is attached to a rod to constrain the
mass to move in the horizontal direction only.

The spring-mounted seismograph records the vertical

ground motion. A spring is attached to the mass which is
connected to a rod. The rod is attached to a pivot to
constrain the mass to move in an up and down direction
only.

Basic Physics

There is some basic terminology and physics that describe

the various aspects of wave form and motion.
The wavelength () is the distance between two adjacent
points on the wave that have similar displacements, one
wavelength is the distance between successive crest.
Amplitude (A) of the wave is the maximum displacement
of the particle motions, or the height of the ripple crest.
Period (T) is the time it takes for two successive waves to
pass a reference point or the motion to complete one
cycle.

The cycle of seismic waves or repetitions in a given unit of

time is called frequency (f). Frequency and period are
related by this relationship:
f = 1 / T [unit: hertz (Hz) or 1/s]
The speed in which the wavefront (or ripple crest) travel
can be detected if the time the wavefront takes to reach a
known distance is recorded:
V = distance / time [unit: m/s]

Or if wavelength and frequency are known:

V= f

Elastic Moduli
Elasticity is the behavior of a material that when subjected
to a stress (force/area), deforms and changes shape
(strain), but returns to original shape when the stress is
removed.

The manner and speed of seismic waves travel through

material is controlled by their elastic properties.

The linear relationship between applied stress, , and

resulting strain is:
= E
E is the constant of proportionality called an elastic
modulus.

We are concerned with two types of deformation uniform

compression or expansion, and shear deformation:

The original volume (V0) change to final volume (VF) when

compared to the pressure change is called bulk modulus
(K). The bulk modulus is a measure of the
incompressibility of the material:
K = V0(P-P0)/(V0-VF)

When deforming a solid state by simple shear, a shear

strain () is induced by applying a shear stress, . The ratio
of these quantities is the rigidity modulus (G):

G = /

Units of elastic modulus are the same as pressure i.e.

MPa or GPa.

Seismic Waves

There are two different types wave produced by an

earthquake: body waves and surface waves.
Body Waves
Body waves are seismic waves that travel through
the body of the earth.

 Body waves are reflected and transmitted at

interfaces where seismic velocity and/or density
change, and they obey Snell's law.
The two different types of body waves are:
P-Waves (P stands for primary or pressure or pushpull). These waves are also called longitudinal
waves or compressional waves due to particle
compression during their transport. These waves
involve compression and rarefaction of the material as
the wave passes through is but not rotation. P-wave is
transmitted by particle movement back and forth
along the direction of propagation of the wave. The
most correct description of P-waves is it is a dilational
or irrotational waves.
P-waves has the greatest speed and appears first
on seismograms.

 S-Waves (S stands for secondary or shear or

shake). Also known as transverse waves, because
particle motions are transverse to the direction of
movement of the wavefront, or perpendicular to the
ray. These waves involve shearing and rotation of the
material as the wave passes through it, but not
volume change.
S-waves have speeds less than P-waves, and
appear on seismograms after P-waves.
Surface Waves
Surface waves are seismic waves that are guided
along the surface of the Earth and the layers near
the surface.
These waves do not penetrate the deep interior of
the earth, and are normally generated by shallow
earthquakes (nuclear explosions do not generate
these surface waves).
Surface waves are larger in amplitude and longer
in duration than body waves.
These waves arrive at seismograph after the
arrival of P- and S-waves because of their slower
velocities. The two different surface waves are:
Rayleigh waves or descriptively called "ground
roll" in exploration seismology. The particle motion

of this wave is confined to a vertical plane

containing the direction of propagation and
retrogrades elliptically. The particle displacements
are greatest at the surface and decrease
exponentially downward. Rayleigh waves show
dispersion, and its velocity is not constant but
varies with wavelength. This wave is similar to
how ocean waves propagate.
VR < V S
Period is typically ~ 20 s, with wavelength or ~
100km

Love waves (named for A.E.H. Love, who

discovered them) travel by a transverse motion of

particles that is parallel to the ground surface. This

wave is somewhat similar to S-waves.
Love waves cannot exist in a uniform solid, and
can only occur when there is a general increase of
S- wave velocity with depth.
Their existence is another proof of the Earths
vertical inhomogeneity.
The particle motion is transverse and horizontal.
Generally, Love wave velocities are greater than
Rayleigh waves, so Love waves arrive before
Rayleigh waves on seismograph.

Seismic Wave Velocities

The velocities of P- and S-waves are given below in

terms of the density () and elastic coefficients of a
material:
Vp = ((K+4/3G)/)
Vs =(G/)
If we note that the bulk modulus (K) and the rigidity
modulus (G) are always positive, then evidently the
velocity of P-waves must always be greater than Swaves.

 Shear waves (S-waves) cannot propagate through

liquid. This is evident when we substitute G = 0 for
liquids, then the velocity of S-waves goes to zero.
This is how it was determined that the outer core
consists of liquid.

Some times you will come across the bulk sound

velocity:
V =(K/)
= (Vp2
-4/3Vs2)
Also, Vp and Vs are related via Poissons ratio
(r).
When a rod is stretched it becomes longer but
narrower, the ratio to the lateral to longitudinal
strain is Poissons ratio.
The ratio of Vp to Vs is given by:
Vp/Vs = [2(1-r)/(1-2r)]1/2
For most rocks, r ~ 0.25, so Vp ~ 1.7 Vs.
There are a few more general rules to the velocity ranges
of common materials:

o Unsaturated sediments have lower values than

saturated sediments.
o Unconsolidated sediments have lower values
than consolidated sediments.
o Velocities are very similar in saturated,
unconsolidated sediments.
o Weathered rocks have lower values than similar
rocks that are unweathered.
o Fractured rocks have lower values than similar
rocks that are unfractured.
Below is a list of velocity estimation of common waves:

For rocks can plot V v. density:

More generally, Birch observed a general relationship

between density and seismic wave velocity which helps us
establish the composition of the Earth:

Now see more detailed notes on seismic waves, and you

might like also like to look at the associated practical
(optional).

Seismic Ray Theory

When seismic rays travel through the Earth, they
encounter changes in K, G and . This causes the
rays to be reflected and refracted.
When seismic energy travels, it ideally would do so
in an approximately spherical way:

 The energy at the wave front gets weaker as it

moves from its source. This geometrical spreading of
the energy causes the amplitude to drop. The energy
drops off as x-2, and the amplitude as x-1 this is
called attenuation.

Layered Media - Normal Incidence

When a ray hits an interface with normal incidence
(ie at right angles to the boundary), some energy is
reflected, while the rest is passed through into the
lower boundary.

The reflection coefficient (R) is the ratio of the

ratio of the reflected ray amplitude to the incident ray
amplitude:

R= A1/A0
For normal incidence this is given by:
R= (Z2-Z1)/(Z2+Z1)
Where Z is the acoustic impedance, and given by
Z = V
The transmission coefficient (T) is:
T = A2/A0
= 2Z1/Z2+Z1

Oblique Incidence
When a P-wave is obliquely incident, there is a
reflected P wave, and the transmitted ray is refracted
in accord with Snells Law.
In addition, some of the compressional energy is
converted into shear energy, and a reflected and
refracted S-wave is generated too.

Refraction & Reflection

Seismology
Reflection seismology is used mostly in exploration
methods, while refraction seismology is use more in whole
Earth studies. Here we will first focus on Refraction
Seismology
What is Seismic Refraction?
o One can study subsurface velocity and layer
interface structure by analyzing the first arrival
times of P-waves (longitudinal or compressional
waves) at the surface of the earth. This technique
is termed seismic refraction.
o Applications of subsurface imaging include:
1. locating buried archeological sites,

2. assessing subsurface geological hazards,

3. defining aquifer geometry
4. exploring for fossil fuel and other natural
resources.

Seismic P-Wave Behavior

When a ray encounters an inhomogeneity in its

travels, for example a lithological contact with another
rock, the incident ray transforms into several new
rays. A reflected wave enters and exits at the same
angle measured to the normal of the boundary - angle
of incidence equals angle of reflection.

o From Snell's Law, a ray path is dependent on the

wave velocities through different layers.

o For refraction seismology, the critical angle is the

most important angle value to understand. If
angle (r) equals 90 degrees, then the refracted
wave propagates along the boundary interface.

o If r = 90, then sin(r) = 1, and the critical angle (ic)

is given by:

ic = sin-1(V1/V2)

o As the critically refracted wave propagates along

the boundary, according to Huygen's Theory of

Wavelets, the primary critically refracted wave

acts as a source for new secondary wave fronts
and ray paths.

o These secondary ray paths exit back to the

surface at the critical angle.

Simple Refraction Model

o Two Horizontal Layers - In the ideal world (of
engineering), refraction seismology is most easily
understood through a horizontal two layer model.

Seismic waves are generated from a source (e.g. a sledge

hammer, explosion, air gun.).
o Geophone receivers record seismic signals received
along the survey profile.
o Since P-waves travel at the fastest speeds, the first
seismic signal received by a geophone represents
the P-wave arrival.
o Five P-waves are of interest in refraction
seismology:
o direct
o diving
o reflected

o head
o refracted

o The direct wave propagates along the atmosphereupper layer (called layer1) boundary.
o A transmitted wave through lower layer (layer 2) is
termed a diving wave.
o A reflected wave enters with the same angle of
incidence as exit angle.
o If the incident wave hits at the critical angle, the
critically refracted head wave travels along the
layer 1-layer 2 interface.
o Refracted waves propagate from the interface as
the head wave progresses, with exit angles equal to
the critical angle.

o With arrival time data collected, arrival times for Pwaves are noted or computed from the
seismographs.
o Arrival times can be represented on a travel-time
graph or T-X plot, that is P-wave arrival times
(usually in milliseconds) verses distance (geophone
location).

o This plot shows that at small distances (x) from the

source, the direct wave arrives first.
o At distances up to the critical distance only the
direct ray, and weakly (sub-critically) reflected rays
arrive at the geophone. The reflected rays are
always later than the direct ray.

o At the critical distance, direct waves and the first

refracted ray arrives. Its amplitude is stronger than
the reflected ray, but is still later than the direct ray.
o At some distance (the cross over distance), the
refracted ray arrives first, since it has traveled at V2
for long enough in the interface so as to catch up
the direct ray.

o From the travel-time curve we can calculate:

o velocities of P-wave propagation through layers
1 and 2 (V1 and V2)
o thickness of layer 1 (H1).

o To obtain these values, combination of equations

and interpretation from the T-X plot is required.
o The travel time of the direct wave is given by:

t DIRECT = x/V1

o So V1 can be obtained from the slope of the direct

arrivals, which passes through the origin.

o The travel time for a reflected ray is given by:

tREFLECTION = (x2 + 4H12)1/2/V1

o This is the equation for a hyperbola, where H1 is the

layer thickness.

o The travel time for the refracted wave is given by:

tREFACTED = x/V2 + 2H1(V22 V12)1/2/(V1V2)

o See detailed notes and Fowler for full derivations.

o The equation for t REFRACTED is that of a straight line ( y
= mx + c). The slope gives 1/V2 and the intercept on
the t axis (i.e. when x=0) enables H1 to be
determined from:

H1 = t(x=0)(V1V2)/2(V22 V12)1/2

Two Layer Dipping Model

o When discussing dipping layers, one wants to

quantify the amount of dip. For a simple case of two
dipping layers, seismic refraction can be utilized to
calculated dip of the layers.

o For a given survey profile, sources must be located

at the beginning of the profile (forward shot) and at
the end of the profile (reverse shot).

o P-wave arrival times for both forward and reverse

shots can be plotted on a T-X plot.

o From the Principle of Reciprocity, time required for a

ray to travel along the forward and reverse shot
should be the same, since the ray pathways are the
same.

o From the T-X plot, V1 and V2 velocities for forward

and reverse shots can be calculated, as well as the
time-intercepts for forward and reverse refracted
waves.

Kearey & Brooks (1984) show how this geometry can

be analyzed to get h, , etc.

Horizontal Multi-Layer Model

o Why only stop with interpretation of two horizontal

layers?

o Calculation of layer velocities and thicknesses for

multi-layers requires patience with many equations
chock full of algebra and trigonometry.

o Please refer to Kearey & Brooks(1984), Fowler (1990)

for these equations. Interpretation of T-X plots
remains the same.

o Each layer yields an interpolated refracted wave

slowness, and time intercept used to calculate layer
thickness.

o This approach leads to understanding why seismic

rays are reflected back to the surface on Earth as V
increases generally with depth:

Problems and Limitations

o The preceding models assume planar boundary

interfaces. Conformable sequences of sedimentary
rock may form planar boundaries. However, erosion
and uplift easily produce irregular boundary contacts.
More sophisticated algorithms can process refraction
surveys where irregular interfaces might be expected.

o Profile length and source energy limit the depth

penetration of the refraction method. Typically, a
profile can only detect features at a depth of onefifth survey length.

Thus, refraction imaging of the Moho would require

profile lengths of over one hundred kilometers; an
difficult experiment.

o Larger sources could be utilized for greater depth

detection, but certain sources (e.g. explosives) may
cause problems in urban areas.

o Refraction depends on layers to increase in velocity

with depth. In the hidden slow layer senario, a
buried layer is overlain by a faster layer. No critical
refraction will occur along the boundary interface.

Thus, refraction will not easily detect the slow

layer. All is not lost since reflection seismology
could detect the slower layer.

o Seismograms require careful analysis to pick first

arrival times for layers. If a thin layer produces first

arrivals which cannot easily be identified on a

seismogram, the layer may never be identified. Thus,
another layer may be misinterpreted as incorporating
the hidden layer. As a result, layer thicknesses may
increase.

Reflection Seismology

Reflection seismology began to take prominence in

the 1920s to begin to locate salt domes, an indication
where oil would be found.
The reflection method soon replaced the refraction
after it was proved with numerous successes, the
most visible in the petroleum industry.
Lets Start With a Single Subsurface Interface
The key is to develop an equation which represents
the time it takes for a particular ray to travel through
this single layer. First, the seismic velocity through the
layer of material that the wave is propagating needs
to be lower than the layer directly below, which we will
assume is infinitely thick.

Therefore, just by simple time-velocity relation and

geometry:

This can be re-written (dropping the subscripts) as:

V2t2 = x2 +4h2
so
V2t2/4h2 x2/4h2 = 1
which has a hyperbolic form:

Now, What Does That Arrival Time Mean Anyway?

Well, the first thing to note is what you can do with the
hyperbola.
A hyperbola has an asymptote along which the
hyperbola approaches. The equation of this line is

Therefore, the asymptote for the travel time curve has

a slope of the reciprocal of the velocity.

Another approach to analysing the data is to get

velocity and thickness from a plot of x2 v t2. Now
recall:

By squaring both sides, the equation resembles

closely the equation of a straight line.

The slope of the line is the reciprocial of the square of

the velocity. The intercepts gives h via:

Exploration Seismology
In the exploration industry there are many ways of
processing reflection data so as to provide more

information about the near sub-surface. This is

beyond this course, but you may read more nonexaminable material, and also in the following text
taken from the Signalworks Pty. Ltd web site.
An Introduction to Reflection Seismology Data Processing
(from Signalworks Pty. Ltd)
Introduction

Reflection seismology is a technique for imaging the geological structure beneath the
earth's surface using sound energy. The technique is used primarily for oil exploration.
An acoustic energy source at the surface transmits an acoustic signal into the earth,
which reflects some of the energy back toward the surface at each geological interface.
An array of geophones or hydrophones detects the faint signals reflected back to the
surface, which are recorded for later processing. The raw data is very noisy and
uninterpretable, requiring extensive processing to produce an image of the earth's
interior.

Figure 1. Marine Seismic Data Acquisition.

Seismic Data Acquisition.

Figure 1 illustrates the process of marine seismic data acquisition. The survey ship
trails an acoustic source (usually compressed air 'guns') and a string of hydrophones,
called a streamer. The streamer is usually about 4000m in length and contains groups
of hydrophones spaced typically every 15m. When the air guns are fired, releasing a
pulse of compressed air, a pressure pulse radiates in an approximately spherical
wavefront through the water and into the earth. The semi-circles in figure 1 indicate the
position the wavefront at regular intervals in time (say every 100mS). When the
wavefront reaches a reflecting geological boundary, some of the wavefront energy is
reflected back towards the surface (light grey semi-circles). This echoed acoustic
energy is sensed by the hydrophones and recorded on the ship for later processing.
To simplify seismic acquisition models, the energy received at a hydrophone can be
considered to have travelled along a linear raypath from the source, into the earth, then
reflecting from the boundary back to the hydrophone. Raypaths from the source to four
hydrophones are shown in figure 1. The raypaths are perpendicular to the wavefronts.

Principles of Acoustic Imaging.

Acoustic imaging in its simplest form consists of measuring the time taken by a pulse to
travel from a source to a reflector and back to a receiver. Repeating these
measurements over a range of positions allows an image of the reflecting surface to be
formed. Figure 2 shows the configuration of a simple imaging system. In practice, noise
and imaging distortions require more elaborate data acquisition configurations and data
processing techniques to achieve accurate imaging.

Figure 2. Simple Acquisition Configuration.

Ideally, the simple acquisition configuration could be used to produce the acoustic
image shown in figure 3. Each geological interface reflects some of the acoustic signal
so that each trace shows a pulse corresponding to each reflector, with an increasing
reflector depth resulting in an increasing time delay on the corresponding pulse.

a)

..........b)

Figure 3. a) Simple Acquisition Acoustic Image and .. b) Detail of First Trace (Ideal
case).

Imaging Problems and Solutions.

The simple imaging technique shown in figure 2 was used in the early days of seismic
imaging, but produced poor results. The main problems were:
a) Noise -- the reflection energy is usually small after travelling a large distance and
bouncing off a weak reflector. Spurious noise in the earth, air and recording electronics
can swamp the reflection signal.
b) Multiples -- the raypaths not only travelled from source to receiver with one bounce
off a reflector, but also followed paths making several intermediate bounces between
reflectors and producing a travel time out of proportion to the reflector depth. Events on
the image associated with raypaths making multiple bounces are called 'multiples' and
should be removed from the image.
c) Source Pulse Shape -- the source pulse may not be sharp enough to produce a high
resolution image and may vary in shape from shot to shot. (The activation of the source
to produce a pulse is termed a 'shot'.)
d) Positioning of Dipping Reflectors -- the acoustic image is produced by displaying
the trace at each record location vertically on the image. If a reflector is dipping, the
raypath reflection point does not lie vertically below the record location, but is offset to
one side. Further processing is required to correctly position the acoustic image.

a)

..........b)
Figure 4. a) Noisy Image and .. b) Detail of First Trace.

Figure 4 shows the effect of noise on the image. The reflected acoustic pulses are
recorded from the hydrophones with a peak amplitude of 1mV. The noisy image shown
in the figure has had random noise added with a normal amplitude distribution, mean
value of 0mV and standard deviation of 0.5mV. The noise has nearly completely

masked the reflection energy. The reflections cannot be discerned on the extracted
trace shown in figure 4 (b).
Adding together repeated records taken at the same location can be used to improve
the signal to noise ratio. Figure 5 shows a series of 32 repeated records. The reflected
energy at 156mS and 416mS can be vaguely made out on this display, but would be
difficult from a single trace. This figure also shows the result of 'stacking' these records.
Stacking involves summing each trace and normalising the resultant summed trace.
The reflection energy is reinforced and the random noise tends to cancel in the stacked
trace (figure 5 (b)), resulting in an increased signal to noise ratio (S/N).

a)

..........b)

Figure 5. a) Repeated Seismic Records and .. b) Resultant Stacked Trace.

a)

..........b)

Figure 6 a) Raypath of 'Multiple' Energy and .. b) Recorded Trace with Multiple at

312mS.

Figure 6 (a) shows the raypath of acoustic energy making two bounces off reflector 1
between the source and receiver. The recorded pulse of this energy is termed a
'multiple' and can be seen at 312mS on the recorded trace of figure 6 (b). To obtain an
acoustic image resembling the reflecting layers, multiples must be removed as they are
mis-positioned on the image. The pulses of energy that travel directly from source to
receiver with a single bounce off the reflectors are termed 'primaries' and produce
proportional images of the geology.

a)

..........b)

Figure 7. a) Common Depth Point Acquisition Configuration and .. b) CDP Gather.

Figure 7 (a) shows the data aquisition configuration that allows multiple energy to be
identified and removed during processing. This is called the Common Depth Point
(CDP) method because the data is repeatedly recorded over increasing source to
receiver offsets, but with the raypaths reflecting off the same depth location on each
geological surface. The CDP gather shown in figure 7 (b) shows the recorded traces for
all source / receiver pairs. As the source to receiver offset increases, the length of the
raypath bouncing off a reflector increases and the pulse is recorded at a larger time
delay. The curved line of pulses on the gather corresponding to a particular reflector is
called an 'event', and its shape is determined by the reflector's depth and the acoustic
velocity along the raypaths.
It is the shape of the event that allows multiple events to be identified and removed by
2D filtering. The ideal shape of these events is hyperbolic and is called a Normal Move
Out (NMO) curve. When the geological layers are flat and have constant acoustic
velocity, the events have an accurate NMO shape. As the geology becomes more
complex with sloping layers and rapid velocity variations, the events deviate from the
ideal shape.

a)

..........b)

Figure 8. a) NMO Corrected CDP Gather and .. b) Trace Produced by Stacking the
Gather.

The process used to filter out the multiples is called 'stacking'. This is a two stage
process involving distorting the gather so that the primary events become flat (termed
'NMO correction'), then summing each trace to produce a single stacked trace. The
stacked trace is also usually rescaled by a factor of 1/N, where N is the number of
traces added in the stack.
The shallow primary reflector has been flattened in the gather, but the NMO correction
has stretched out the pulse in the long offset traces. This is called 'NMO stretch' and will
reduce the sharpness of the corresponding stacked pulse. This is seen in the 156mS
event in figure 8 (b) when compared to the ideal event shape in figure 6 (b). To reduce
the problem, regions of excessive NMO stretch are zeroed ('muted') before stacking.
The multiple event at about 312mS is not flattened by the primary NMO correction and
has reduced amplitude on the stack trace. Figure 8 (b) shows that the multiple
amplitude has been reduced by about 50% while the primary amplitudes have been
preserved. This performance can be improved by increasing the range of offsets
recorded in the gather and increasing the sharpness (or resolution) of the pulses.

a)

..........b)

Figure 9. a) CDP Gather (Sharp Acoustic Pulse) and .. b) Stacked Trace.

Figure 9 shows the NMO corrected CDP gather and stacked trace produced using a
sharper acoustic pulse. The sharp pulse has a dominant period of 25mS compared to
51mS used previously. The multiple on the stacked trace is reduced to around a quarter
of the amplitude of the primary events.

a)

..........b)

Figure 10. a) Raw Seismic Wavelet and .. b) Wavelet after Shaping.

Seismic sources usually produce non-ideal wavelet (or pulse) shapes, often having
several oscillations over a broad wavelet and inconsistent shapes from shot to shot. A
raw wavelet such as shown in figure 10 (a) can be filtered to remove oscillations and
sharpen the pulse to produce a shaped wavelet shown in figure 10 (b). An ideal sharp
wavelet improves the resolution and interpretability of the acoustic image.

Figure 11. The Reflection Point for a Dipping Reflector is Offset from the Middle of
the Source / Receiver Pair.
Figure 11 shows the raypath from a near offset source / receiver pair down to a dipping
reflector. The reflection point does not lie beneath the centre of the source / receiver
where it is plotted on a stacked trace section. The process of repositioning dipping
reflectors is called 'migration', and the output of this process is a 'migrated section'.
Migration also corrects 'diffractions', which are hyperbola shaped events appearing on
stack sections and emanating from sharp discontinuities in the geology. Migration can
be performed on a stack section by summing amplitudes along a hyperbolic curve and
placing the scaled sum at the apex of the hyperbola. This can also be viewed as
collapsing diffractions to a point over the entire stack section. The shape of the
summing hyperbolas varies over the section and is a function of the depth and
shallower acoustic velocities. The velocity distribution determined from earlier stacking
velocity analyses can be used to control the migration process.

a)

..........b)

Figure 12. a) Stacked and .. b) Migrated Seismic Sections.

Figure 12 (a) shows a stacked section with a steeply dipping reflector mis-positioned.
The migrated section (figure 12 (b)) shows the dipping reflector re-positioned in the updip direction and with a steeper slope.