Wave attenuation is an important physical property of hydrocarbon-bearing sediments that is rarely taken into account in site characterization with seismic data. We present a 1D viscoelastic waveform inversion scheme for determining the quality factor [Formula: see text] from the normal-incidence surface seismic and zero-offset vertical seismic profile (VSP) data simultaneously. The joint inversion problem is solved by the damped least-squares method, and the inversion result is successful using synthetic data. The effects of initial model thickness, [Formula: see text] value, and the existence of noise were studied through a synthetic example. By extracting all of the information contained in the waveforms, the waveform inversion of the seismic reflection and transmission data becomes a powerful tool for estimating [Formula: see text]. For a more comprehensive image of [Formula: see text], the tomographic inversion of [Formula: see text] is applied to the walkaway VSP and prestack surface seismic data, using the waveform inversion result as the initial model. Results from applying the method to a real seismic line and zero-offset VSP data from the Nanyang oilfield, central China, indicate that [Formula: see text] from the tomographic inversion of reflection and transmission data contains useful information on medium properties, which can aid in reservoir appraisal.
Joint waveform inversion with the separated upgoing and downgoing wavefields of VSP data