Passive image interferometry for monitoring crustal changes with ambient seismic noise

The technique to retrieve Green’s functions by cross-correlation of seismic noise that is now often referred to as seismic interferometry opened the way to a completely new type of seismological observation – the continuous monitoring of changes in the subsurface medium. In this paper we review Passive image interferometry (PII) as the technique that makes use of the possibility to repeatedly retrieve Green’s functions in order to precisely infer medium changes by comparing Green’s functions that are retrieved at different times. PII is capable of identifying velocity changes below 0.1% and was applied successfully in different tectonic situations. We review three investigations of PII that demonstrate the wide range of possible applications. The first application that introduced the concept of PII in 2006 revealed hydrology related changes of subsurface velocity at Merapi volcano. The second application we present was the first noise based observation of co-seismic changes. And we finally review a recent investigation that documented velocity variations in the shallow subsurface of the moon.