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We present an approach for seismic noise which improves Rayleigh-wave ellipticity estimates by reducing the influences from body waves and Love waves. The method requires three-component seismographs and uses the phase-shift information between the vertical and horizontal components. We select data that show the phase-shift of about 90° in order to separate Rayleigh waves from body waves and Love waves. In comparison to the usual H/V approach, the estimates for Rayleigh-wave ellipticity are systematically different by about 20 per cent because the existence of S waves and Love waves systematically increases horizontal amplitudes. The differences in the inverted S-wave velocity structure reach up to about 20 per cent in the upper 20 km. The method is limited to a relatively low-frequency range, below 0.3 Hz, as the 90° phase-shift peaks become difficult to identify above 0.3 Hz. Despite this limitation in the frequency range, this approach can improve the S-wave velocity structure in the upper 5–10 km, which should lead to a better prediction of long-period ground motions for periods of about 5–10 s. An improved prediction of such long-period ground motion is important for hazard mitigation in the world's metropolitan areas with high-rise buildings. This approach is applied to the structure in the broader Los Angeles basin in Southern California and improvement of the reference velocity structure in the upper 5–10 km is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]