CHINESE JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICS Vol.47, No.

6, 2004, pp: 1261∼1271

BLOCK MODELING AND SHOOTING RAY TRACING

IN COMPLEX 3-D MEDIA

XU Tao1 XU Guo-Ming1 GAO Er-Gen1 ZHU Liang-Bao1 JIANG Xian-Yi2

1 School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
2 Geophysical Research Institute, Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting, CNPC, Zhuozhou 072751, China

Abstract We propose an improved block modeling technique to describe complex 3-D media. A geological
medium is represented as an aggregate of geological blocks rather than layers, which have their own attributes
such as shape, size, density and seismic wave velocity. The structure of a blocky model is Body → Block →
Interface → Point. We construct interfaces in the model with triangles, which fit most complex media. For
normal vectors change abruptly across the linked boundaries, normal vectors to the interfaces are everywhere
smoothed by an approximate estimation and thus approximately C2 continuous to generate relatively accurate
ray tracing. We present some methods for shooting ray tracing in 3-D: triangle-subdivision, triangle-division and
subtriangle methods. Our calculation indicates that the subtriangle method is most efficient. We present real
cases for some complex models and ray tracing results on these models.

Key words Ray tracing, Block modeling, Triangle, Normal vector, Subtriangle method.

1 INTRODUCTION
Ray tracing methods of seismic wave has been widely used in earthquake location, geophysical tomography,
and migration processing of seismic exploration data. Its path precision and calculation speed have the most
significant influence upon the quality of data processing and computation speed. Therefore it has important
implication in geophysical fields to develop rapid and precise ray tracing methods.
Traditional ray tracing methods include shooting[1∼8] and bending[9∼16] . Later wavefront[17∼19] , graph
theory[20] , and simulated annealing[21,22] ray tracing methods were proposed. Cerveny et al.[23∼25] have made
good reviews to these advances. Comparing with other methods, the shooting method has a high accuracy
and advantage in global searching and suiting complex geological models. It is an important approach for the
two-point tracing.
Langan et al.[5] used the mesh method and assumed that the velocity varies linearly in a mesh. They made
two times integration to the eikonal equation to obtain the position and direction of the ray path in the medium
as well as the expression equation of travel time in respect to the arc length of the ray. On this basis, Ma et al.[2]
suggested the two-step ray tracing method, Xu et al.[3] proposed micro-varying mesh method for ray tracing,
and Yang et al.[4] designed the 3-D ray tracing for complicated media. Sambridge et al.[6] made numerical
integration to a continuous medium to get shooting ray path. Virieux et al.[8] divided the medium with parallel
hexahedron into micro-elements, in which the velocity field was regarded as gradient one and the path and
travel time of the perturbated ray was obtained by numerical integration. Starting from the ray equation,
Sun[7] performed one-order shooting revision to the ray path along an approximate path for the integration of
the ray equation, making the ray converge to the receiver by step integration on the revised path. He made
division to the medium by rectangular meshes (or cubes in 3-D case) of which the nodal number determines
the amount of smooth parts of the ray path. A higher requirement of precision needs a larger number of mesh
nodes, resulting in slower tracing speed.
During shooting ray tracing, updating the take-off angles is of most importance, because it involves whether
the shooting ray can converge to the receiver rapidly. It is particularly vital for 3-D case. This issue has not
been addressed in detail in the previous studies mentioned above.
E-mail: xutao@mail.iggcas.ac.cn
1262 Chinese J. Geophys. Vol.47, No.6

2 MODEL PARAMETERIZATION
Ray tracing methods are based on given geological models. Usually these models are describe by mesh or
cell division (using cube[7] or parallel hexahedron[8] for 3-D) and layered structure. Generally, in the wavefront,
graph theory and simulated annealing methods, the geological models are represented by meshes, in which the
medium is assumed of uniform velocity or constant velocity gradient. The bending method uses layered models.
And both layered and mesh models are employed in the shooting method.
When the subsurface medium is approximated by meshes or cells, the more the mesh nodes are, the more
accurate the description of the model is. The mesh-based ray tracing takes usually the approximating treatment
to this problem, and requires that the ray path must go through mesh nodes. The accuracy and amount of
calculation depend on the number of mesh nodes (at least proportional to N )[20] . If the size of a 3-D geological
model is 5000m×5000m×5000m, with a mesh distance 10m, then the number of nodes reaches 1.25×108 . Higher
accuracy requires smaller meshes. Therefore this method is limited by inner memory and computation speed of
computer. In practice field work such as seismic acquisition and 3-D survey designing needs quick ray tracing
results. Hence the model description of mesh division and corresponding ray tracing are almost not adapted to
field exploration.
Since subsurface media are usually of layered formation, layered models are widely employed in seismology.
They require that all interfaces extend through the model from one boundary to the other one, and are arranged
in order from top to bottom without any intersection. In general the interface of a layered model is described
by a continuous function such as the B spline function[10] .
For simple geological models, the description of layered structure is direct, the programming of ray tracing
is easy and calculation is fast. The ray tracing is implemented as below. The ray starts down from the source,
going through strata one by one till encountering the given reflection interface. Then it return to the receiver in
the reverse order of strata. But for the model of a reverse fault, the ray tracing is not in the general procedure.
As shown in Fig. 1a, in this case when the ray nearby the right side of the point A starts down, it goes from the
second layer through the third layer and then from the third through the second again. It means that the ray
may travel through the same transmitted face repeatedly against ordinary rules.

Fig. 1 Ray tracing in a reverse fault model

(a) Velocity structure of the reverse fault model; (b) The layer orders after virtual interfaces
are added and some interfaces overlap.

To describe a reverse fault model by layered structure, we can construct a virtual interface. It is a kind
of assumed interface, of which on the both sides the attributes are the same. As shown in Fig. 1b, the interface
3 is extended to the left boundary and the interface 7 to the right boundary, and meanwhile a virtual interface
is inserted into the model. The new strata order is shown in the figure, where many interfaces are overlapped.
For more complex geological models, it is extremely difficult to use layered structure for model description. In
this case the ray tracing will be more heavy and complicated.
 Xu T et al.: Block Modeling and Shooting Ray Tracing in Complex 3-D Media 1263

To solve this problem, we propose a modeling

scheme of block structure and several updating meth-
ods of shooting angles for rapid ray tracing.
2.1 Structure of Blocky Model
In the nature, after long term of crustal motion
and deformation, originally geological structures have
become more complicated, as shown in Fig. 2. Hence
it is easier to describe them using so-called blocks or
volumes. In these models 3-D geological bodies are re-
garded as aggregates of many blocks. Each block has
its own seismic attributes such as geometry, size, den- Fig. 2 The complex model is an aggregate of blocks
sity and seismic velocity, as well as boundaries with and interfaces are triangulated
other neighboring blocks. different blocks are described as different colors.

Gjoystdal et al.[26] used a solid modeling technique to generate a 3-D model. They used set operators
such as sum set, intersection set, co-set, and complementary set to construct blocks. On this basis Pereyra[11]
developed the description method of block models which are more intuitive and natural. He utilized the Coons
surface patch or the B spline surface patch to represent model interfaces for block model description. This
method is used for ray tracing on geological models with special structures such as pinch-out layers and salt
domes with overhangs, and not applicable for general complicated 3-D geological problems.
Xu et al.[27] suggested a description way of area→element → edge→segment →point for block structure
of 2-D complex media. For 3-D block structures, we describe the geological body by a hierarchial structure of
body→block→interface →point. Here the geological body consists of some blocks with varied attributes, which
are separated by interfaces. On the both sides of an interface are different blocks. An interface is described by
some discrete geological points. With such a hierarchial structure the geological body is completely defined.
Within a geological block, the medium is assumed to be homogeneous with same seismic attributes (density
and seismic velocity, etc.). Therefore the ray path in this block is a straight line. A heterogeneous geological
body can be divided into many small blocks of which each one is uniform. Different blocks have varied sizes
and shapes. According to the actual geological conditions, the parts of little structural variations are described
by few larger blocks. On the contrary, more and smaller blocks are used to represent the complex parts. This
is distinct from the spatial mesh description which is roughly the same in size.
The description of block structure in this study is somewhat similar to Pereyra[11] with difference in
description of model interfaces.

2.2 Interfaces Representation

Theoretically any complicated 3-D geological body can be constructed by block structures. Here the
description of surface patch (interface→point) is the key issue, i.e. how to build a geological interface with
given discrete points. For the rapid ray tracing on complicated media, the description must meet the following
requirements: (1) It can be adapted to very complex geological structures. (2) The geological surface patches
are well smooth assembled without any gaps, otherwise it will lead wrong ray tracing results. And (3) The
intersection point between one ray (straight line) and geological surface must be found rapidly and exactly.
In this study we attempt to use parameterized Coons, Bezier, and B spline surface patches as well as
triangle plane respectively to construct the geological surface.
A Coons surface patch is formed by interpolation to an n × m spatial lattice. This surface passes through
given points, which can be viewed as the expansion of the Hermite interpolation.
For a given (n + 1) × (m + 1) spatial lattice Pij (i = 0, 1, · · · , n; j = 0, 1, · · · , m), we have an n × m Bezier
1264 Chinese J. Geophys. Vol.47, No.6

surface patch
n X
X m
P (s, t) = Bi,n (s)Bj,m (t)Pij , (0 ≤ s, t ≤ 1), (1)
i=0 j=0

where Bi,n (s) and Bj,m (t) are the Bernstein base functions of n and m degree, respectively. The Bezier surface
patch is easy to be controlled and described, and has good spatial geometry properties. But it has higher
degrees in the case of many controlling points, and the Bezier surface patch can not be locally revised as the
change of each controlling point would have effect on the entire surface. The B spline surface patch has no
such a shortcoming. Meanwhile it posses similar spatial properties to that of the B surface patch and is more
convenient to be linked.
Suppose a (n + 1) × (m + 1) spatial lattice Pij (i = 0, 1, · · · , n; j = 0, 1, · · · , m), then we have
n X
X m
P (s, t) = Ni,k (s)Nj,l (t)Pij , (0 ≤ s, t ≤ 1), (2)
i=0 j=0

which defines a k × l degree B spline surface patch, where Ni,k (s) and Nj,l (t) are the k degree and l degree B
spline base function, respectively.
The primary advantage of the three descriptions of the surface patches mentioned above is their C2
continuous. It is favorable to the ray tracing methods that rely on nearby ray trajectories to vary smoothly in
order to find a optimum solution. But they will encounter two difficulties[8,28∼30] . One is assemblage of surface
patches. Taking the B spline surface patch as an example, in which two surface patches are built on the n1 × m1
and n2 × m2 mesh, respectively. In the connection direction, not only the number of controlling points should
be equal (n1 = n2 ), but also they should be coincident each other. Otherwise gap will be generated[31,32] . These
conditions can get only C0 continuity. If the two surface patches are required to be more smooth, then the
conditions will be more rigorous[29,31,32] . Hence in general one layered interface is described by only one surface
patch[29] . The other difficult is to realize the intersection between the ray and the surface patch is very time
consuming. Usually the intersection between the ray and three kinds of surface patches is an iterative process.
Some solutions are the strategies based on a box hierarchy[8] and a generalized Newton method[33] used the
Newton method to solve this problem. It can also be managed in a easy way by constructing triangle plane
interfaces.
2.3 Triangulated Interfaces
A triangulated interface is an assemblage of a set of triangle plane sheets. For a given set of discrete points
in 3-D space, there is at least one scheme, such as the Delaunay method[34] , by which a triangulated interface
can be built by a set of triangles in varied sizes. These surface patches do not overlap each other and no gaps
exist.
Every two triangles are linked by a segment, so no gap is generated. The intersection between the ray and
triangle plane sheets is an analytical solution. During ray tracing there are a large number of intersection between
the ray and surface patches, so the time for ray tracing can be saved greatly. Furthermore, reconstruction of
surface patches can be performed through adding or reducing partial discrete points, which is helpful to revision
of modeling. All the interfaces in the 3-D complex model shown in Fig. 2 are made up of triangle plane sheets,
which total 6676 and are of varied sizes. Triangulated interfaces are also applied in the well-known GOCAD
system[35,36] .
Although triangulated interfaces have great advantages, which are not smooth as oppose to the former
patches. It means that if two neighboring triangles are not in a same plane, their normal vectors will change
abruptly at the sutures. Furthermore, to meet the Snell law of ray, the transmitted or reflected ray can suddenly
change their direction as they travle through the boundary between the triangles. Though GOCAD uses Discrete
Smooth Interpolator (DSI) to modify the existing interfaces and interpolate some geological nodes for the lack
or inaccuracy of such data, it cannot deal with abrupt changes of normal vectors[35,36] . Therefore the GOCAD
 Xu T et al.: Block Modeling and Shooting Ray Tracing in Complex 3-D Media 1265

based 3-D model would make approximation in ray tracing. Guiziou et al.[37] used a ray perturbation technique
which requires that the ray must be through the vertexes of a triangle. Therefore ray tracing is actually a
nonlinear optimization problem of which the solution has some errors. One possible approach to reduce errors
is to increase the density of triangle meshes. But this makes ray tracing more time consuming.
Therefore, we perform smoothing to normal vectors at each nodes on the geological interfaces of the model.
The smoothing procedure includes two steps. First the normal vectors at every geological nodes on the interfaces
are calculated, i.e. the normal vectors at the vertexes of each triangle. Then the normal vector at any point
within a triangle can be obtained by linear interpolation to those at the three vertexes of the triangle.

2.3.1 Calculation of normal vectors at vertexes of a

triangle
The normal vector at one point on a geological
interface of the model can be obtained by weighted
interpolation to the normal vectors of neighboring tri-
angles linked to this point. The weight is directly pro-
portional to the area of the neighboring triangle and
inversely proportional to the distance from the point
to the center of this triangle. As shown in Fig. 3, on
a geological plane triangles No.1∼6 are adjoining to
point A, triangles No.3∼4 adjoining to point F and
No.4∼5 to point E, etc. (in the model triangles linked
to points E and F are more than two). Suppose that
six normal vectors of linked triangles around vertex A
are ni (i = 1, · · · , 6), the triangle area is si , and the
distance between the center of a triangle and A is di , Fig. 3 Normal vector of vertex A is determined
then the normal vector of vertex A is by six adjoining triangles

6  
X si ni
nA = , (3)
i=1
di
the normal vectors for other vertexes, such as B and C, can be determined by the same way.

2.3.2 Calculation of the normal vector at any point in a triangle

Denote the area coordinate of a P in a triangle as ui , then the normal vector of P is calculated by linear
interpolation to normal vectors of the three vertexes
3
X
nP = (ui ni ). (4)
i=1

This normal vector is one degree continuous in the triangle as well as on the boundaries of the triangle.
For instance, the normal vectors in a point on Edge AB are equal when calculated by triangle ABC or ABD,
respectively.
Within the same geological plane, normal vectors are continuous. But on different geological plane bound-
aries, this is not always true. It accords the actual case: at the joint between vertical and horizontal interfaces
of the model, the normal vector should not be continuous.

3 SHOOTING RAY TRACING METHODS

We study the shooting ray tracing method using 3-D reflected wave as the object. When shooting, firstly
a bond of rays are shot at an angle range in both vertical and horizontal planes, generating a matrix of shot
1266 Chinese J. Geophys. Vol.47, No.6

angles. These shooting rays produce a matrix of mesh points at emergence points on the surface, as shown
in Fig. 4. These mesh points constitute many triangles, called emergence triangles. The three vertexes of
a emergence triangle are respectively corresponding shot angles (θi , φi ), with components in shot direction
(sin θi cos φi , sin θi sin φi , cos θi ), or denoted as wi , where i=1,2,3. On the surface the emergence triangles form
a set of triangle meshes. In terms of area coordinates, it can be rapidly determined that in which triangle the
target receiver P is situated. When the position of the receiver, three vertexes of the situated triangle, and the
corresponding shot angles are known, the shooting ray tracing is a process to update shot angles so that the
rays are directed toward the receiver. As it is a nonlinear problem, iteration is needed. If the receiver P is not
within one of the emergence triangles, and the shooting range is big enough, then the receiver P is in the shade
zone. By using the shooting method presented in this study this judgement can be made.
Since the model and ray paths are nonlinear, the
emergence triangles possibly overlap each other. If the
target receiver is located in several emergence trian-
gles at the same time, called different initial ones for
iteration, they are used to trace several ray paths re-
spectively. The shooting method of this work can solve
the issue of multi-solution.
During shooting iteration, this work studies some
Fig. 4 A set of emergence triangles on the surface correction ways such as triangle subdivision, triangle
formed by emergence points division, and sub-triangle methods. Revision is made
Cross P is the receiver. to direction components rather than angles directly.

3.1 Triangle Subdivision Method

Triangle subdivision means to reduce an emergence triangle constantly till it converges to the receiver and
the given precision is reached. As shown in Fig. 5a, the receiver is in the emergence triangle T1 T2 T3 , with the
largest side T2 T3 . The center line T1 T divided the triangle into two parts. Based on the shooting components
corresponding to three vertexes T1 T2 T3 , new components are generated through weighted summation of the
area coordinates of point T in the triangle. Suppose that the shooting direction components of three vertexes
(i)
are wj , where (i, j = 1, 2, 3), i is the sequence number, j represents three components. Suppose the area
coordinates of T in the triangle is ui (it is (0, 0.5,0.5) in this example), then the new component wj in the
shooting direction is
3
(i)
X
wj = wj ui . (5)
i=0

Performing shot with wj , we get the emergence point T 0 of shooting. Due to nonlinearity, T 0 does not
certainly coincide with T . If the distance between T 0 and the receiver is less than the given precision, then
the shooting iteration ends. Otherwise the current triangle is divided into two ones T1 T2 T 0 and T1 T 0 T3 . In
terms of area coordinates, the triangle, in which the receiver P is located, can be determined as the initial one
for next shooting iteration. Such shooting is continued till the distance between the emergence point and the
receiver is smaller than the given accuracy. For the numerical test on this model the shooting can converge to
the receiver after 300 times shot on the average.
3.2 Triangle Division Method
As shown by Fig. 5b, the receiver P is in the emergence triangle T1 T2 T3 . Using the shooting direction
components for three vertexes and the area coordinates P in the triangle, new direction components are calcu-
lated through weighted summation by formula (5). Using these new components we perform shooting to produce
emergence point T . If the distance between T and the receiver is less than given precision, the shooting iteration
stops. Otherwise the current triangle is divided into three ones T T1 T2 , T T2 T3 and T T3 T1 . Determining in
 Xu T et al.: Block Modeling and Shooting Ray Tracing in Complex 3-D Media 1267

which triangle the receiver is situated as the initial triangle for next shooting iteration, we continue shooting in
this way till the distance between the emergence point and the receiver is less than the given precision. On the
average shooting can reach convergence by 3∼4 times calculation.
3.3 Subtriangle Method
As shown by Fig. 5c, the receiver P is in the emergence triangle T1 T2 T3 . Using the shooting direc-
tion components for three vertexes and the area coordinates P in the triangle, new direction components are
calculated through weighted summation by formula (5). Using these new components we perform shooting
to produce emergence point T4 . If the distance between T4 and the receiver is less than given precision, the
shooting iteration stops. Otherwise we construct an equilateral triangle T4 T5 T6 , where the emergence point T4
is one vertex and the receiver P is the center. Using shooting direction components to three vertexes T1 T2 T3
and performing weighted summation to area coordinates of T5 and T6 in the triangle, new direction components
are calculated for the next shooting to generate two emergence points T50 and T60 . Because of nonlinearity, there
is not certain coincidence between T50 and T5 , and T60 and T6 . The shooting emergence points T4 , T50 and T60
constitute a new initial triangle for shooting iteration. Continuing the procedures above for shooting iteration
till the distance between the new emergence point and the receiver is less than given precision. In some cases,
the precision can be raised by five orders by one time iteration, and in general four shooting or one iteration
can meet the requirement.

Fig. 5 The sketch map of three methods of shooting angle modification

(a) Triangle subdivision; (b) Triangle division; (3) Subtriangle.

3.4 Comparison of Shooting Methods

In this study we do not use the traditional method of angle modification. Instead we make revision to
direction components. By comparison, our method has good stability and high convergence precision and does
not need calculation of trigonometric functions as tested by theoretical analysis and numerical test[1] .
Among the three shooting methods presented in last section, the average shooting times of the triangle
subdivision are the most, and it converges slow. In these aspects the triangle division and subtriangle methods
are equivalent. The convergence precision of shooting iteration depends on the size of the initial triangle for
iteration. If the size of the triangle is very small, the convergence precision can be very high. During shooting
iteration, of the initial triangles in the triangle division method keep relatively large sizes, resulting in a low
precision of convergence. In the subdivision method, the initial triangles become gradually small with proceeding
iteration, so that it has a better convergence precision. For the subtriangle method, the initial triangles for
iteration turn to be smaller rapidly, hence leading a much better convergence precision. These comparisons are
listed in Table 1.
1268 Chinese J. Geophys. Vol.47, No.6

Table 1 Comparison of three shooting methods

Triangle subdivision Triangle division Subtriangle

Average shooting times 300 3∼4 4
Convergence speed Slow Fast Fast
Convergence precision Relatively high Relatively low High

4 MODELS AND EXAMPLES

Models shown in Fig. 6a and Fig. 7a are of block structure description with triangulated interfaces. Their
size is 5000m×5000m×5000m. Fig. 6a shows a reverse fault model and its velocity structure as well as the ray
tracing result on it. This model has 4 blocks and 3368 triangles. On this model 360 receivers on the horizontal
surface is traced by single shot. The lateral interface on the bottom is defined as a reflected one. The blue
rays are incident and red ones are reflected (Fig. 6a). Fig. 6b displays the corresponding travel times of rays,
where the abscissas represent the longitudinal coordinates of 6 columns of receivers on the surface (same below).
Fig. 7a shows a combined model and its velocity structure. The model, which contains normal fault, reverse
fault, lens, and intrusion, consists of 7 blocks and 4649 triangles. The upper surface of the lens is defined
as reflected interface. On this model 360 receivers on the ground is traced by single shot. Fig. 7b displays
the tracing result. Fig. 8a shows the ray tracing result on the model of Fig. 2, where the model dimension is
10000m×10000m×5000m, consisting of 18 blocks and 6676 triangles. The yellow “stratum” is the reflected
interface. 360 receivers on the fluctuant surface are traced by sing shot. Because of complex structure of this
model, the velocity structure is not plotted here. Fig. 8b shows the travel times of the ray tracing result, which
has partial discontinuity.

Fig. 6 (a) The velocity structure and ray tracing results of the reverse fault model,
and (b) is the associated travel times

Fig. 7 (a) The combination model and velocity structure, and (b) ray tracing results based on the model
The upper interface of the lens is defined as the reflected interface.
 Xu T et al.: Block Modeling and Shooting Ray Tracing in Complex 3-D Media 1269

Fig. 8 (a) Ray tracing result based on the complex model. The semitransparent interface is the fluctuant surface.
The yellow “layer” is defined as the reflected interface; (b) is the associated travel times

The model descriptions and ray tracing methods presented in this paper have been applied to seismic
acquisition and 3-D survey designing in the field work which requires that the ray tracing time of the system
implementation is as little as possible. There are many possible factors which have effects on ray tracing
time, such as complication of models, precision requirements, number of shot sites and receivers, and operation
speed of computers. And different parameters need varied ray tracing time. On a microcomputer (Pentium III
733MHz), the average time for tracing a receiver by single shot is 0.001s. Under the above shot and detection
conditions, the average time for ray tracing is 0.360s. Such fast ray tracing meets the speed requirement of field
work.

5 CONCLUSIONS
In this study we reconstruct 3-D geological models in a new way. To change the traditional modeling for
layered media, we introduce block structure and triangulated interfaces which are adapted to very complicated
3-D mdeia. This new modeling method has thoroughly changed the situation that layered medium modeling
cannot be suitable to complex geological structures. For the need of ray tracing, we make smoothing treatment
to normal vectors in triangles which vary continuously in geological interfaces.
Based on blocky models, we use area coordinates to study several ray tracing methods: triangle subdivision,
triangle division, and subtriangle. Our test shows that the subtriangle method is best with rapid convergence
and high precision. The shooting method presented in this paper can solve the problems of multi-solution in
ray paths and determining whether the receiver is located in the shade zone.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (4034010).

Appendix: Area Coordinates

In a triangle T1 T2 T3 , if the coordinates of T1 , T2 and T3 are given, then every point in the plane T1 T2 T3 has a
set of area coordinates. For point P , its area coordinates are (u1 , u2 , u3 ). We define

[P T2 T3 ] [T1 P T3 ] [T1 T2 P ]
u1 = , u2 = , u3 = ,
[T1 T2 T3 ] [T1 T2 T3 ] [T1 T2 T3 ]

where [P T2 T3 ] is the oriented area of the triangle P T2 T3 . As P, T2 , T3 rotate anticlockwise, [P T2 T3 ] is the area of the
triangle P T2 T3 . As P, T2 , T3 rotate clockwise, [P T2 T3 ] is negative and its absolute value is the area of the triangle
P T2 T3 .
1270 Chinese J. Geophys. Vol.47, No.6

The area coordinates have the following basic fea-

Fig. A1 Sketch of area coordinates
tures:
(1) u1 + u2 + u3 ≡ 1 for any point on the plane.
(2) u1 ≥ 0, u2 ≥ 0, u3 ≥ 0, |u1 | + |u2 | + |u3 | = 1, when
the point P is in the triangle or on the boundary.
(3) |u1 | + |u2 | + |u3 | > 1, when P is outside the trian-
gle.
Using these features we can determine quickly the po-
sition of the point P in the triangle plane.

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