Comparison of two inversions for elasticity tensor

We compare two methods that determine the components of the elasticity tensor describing a Hookean solid: a method based on the wavefront-slowness and polarization measurements, and a method based on the ray-velocity and polarization measurements. The first method assumes a lateral homogeneity of the medium; the second one assumes its complete homogeneity. The assumption of the former method is less restrictive than that of the latter, however, the related errors in the components of the elasticity tensor are larger than the errors resulting from this latter method. The requirement of a large number of measurements for either method renders them difficult in practice.