This course focuses on benefits and limitations of geophysical methods applied to problems of high societal relevance. It is demonstrated, how seismics, ground-penetrating-radar and other electromagnetic methods can be employed in geothermics, the cryosphere, hydrocarbon exploration, natural hazard assessments and radioactive waste disposal problems.

Mathematical methods play a fundamental role in seismic data analysis and imaging. The course covers mathematical tools regarding Fourier analysis, inverse problems, sparsity and low rank that are central themes in modern seismic data analysis and imaging. Implementation design and computational efficiency are aspects that are also covered.