Pure qP-wave least-squares reverse time migration in vertically transverse isotropic media and its application to field data

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-220
Author(s):  
Jian-Ping Huang ◽  
Xin-Ru Mu ◽  
Zhen-Chun Li ◽  
Qing-Yang Li ◽  
Shuang-Qi Yuan ◽  
...  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. SN25-SN32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping Wang ◽  
Shouting Huang ◽  
Ming Wang

Complex overburdens often distort reservoir images in terms of structural positioning, stratigraphic resolution, and amplitude fidelity. One prime example of a complex overburden is in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, where thick and irregular layers of remobilized (i.e., allochthonous) salt are situated above prospective reservoir intervals. The highly variant salt layers create large lateral velocity variations that distort wave propagation and the illumination of deeper reservoir targets. In subsalt imaging, tools such as reflection tomography, full-waveform inversion, and detailed salt interpretation are needed to derive a high-resolution velocity model that captures the lateral velocity variations. Once a velocity field is obtained, reverse time migration (RTM) can be applied to restore structural positioning of events below and around the salt. However, RTM by nature is unable to fully recover the reflectivity for desired amplitudes and resolution. This shortcoming is well-recognized by the imaging community, and it has propelled the emergence of least-squares RTM (LSRTM) in recent years. We have investigated how current LSRTM methods perform on subsalt images. First, we compared the formulation of data-domain versus image-domain least-squares migration, as well as methods using single-iteration approximation versus iterative inversion. Then, we examined the resulting subsalt images of several LSRTM methods applied on the synthetic and field data. Among our tests, we found that image-domain single-iteration LSRTM methods, including an extension of an approximate inverse Hessian method in the curvelet domain, not only compensated for amplitude loss due to poor illumination caused by complex salt bodies, but it also produced subsalt images with fewer migration artifacts in the field data. In contrast, an iterative inversion method showed its potential for broadening the bandwidth in the subsalt, but it was less effective in reducing migration artifacts and noise. Based on our understanding, we evaluated the current state of LSRTM for subsalt imaging.


Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. S539-S553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jidong Yang ◽  
Hejun Zhu ◽  
George McMechan ◽  
Houzhu Zhang ◽  
Yang Zhao

Using adjoint-based elastic reverse time migration, it is difficult to produce high-quality reflectivity images due to the limited acquisition apertures, band-limited source time function, and irregular subsurface illumination. Through iteratively computing the Hessian inverse, least-squares migration enables us to reduce the point-spread-function effects and improve the image resolution and amplitude fidelity. By incorporating anisotropy in the 2D elastic wave equation, we have developed an elastic least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) method for multicomponent data from the vertically transversely isotropic (VTI) media. Using the perturbed stiffness parameters [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] as PP and PS reflectivities, we linearize the elastic VTI wave equation and obtain a Born modeling (demigration) operator. Then, we use the Lagrange multiplier method to derive the corresponding adjoint wave equation and reflectivity kernels. With linearized forward modeling and adjoint migration operators, we solve a linear inverse problem to estimate the subsurface reflectivity models for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]. To reduce the artifacts caused by data over-fitting, we introduce total-variation regularization into the reflectivity inversion, which promotes a sparse solution in terms of the model derivatives. To accelerate the convergence of LSRTM, we use source illumination to approximate the diagonal Hessian and use it as a preconditioner for the misfit gradient. Numerical examples help us determine that our elastic VTI LSRTM method can improve the spatial resolution and amplitude fidelity in comparison to adjoint migration.


Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. S425-S438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqing Chen ◽  
Gaurav Dutta ◽  
Wei Dai ◽  
Gerard T. Schuster

Viscoacoustic least-squares reverse time migration, also denoted as Q-LSRTM, linearly inverts for the subsurface reflectivity model from lossy data. Compared with conventional migration methods, it can compensate for the amplitude loss in the migrated images due to strong subsurface attenuation and can produce reflectors that are accurately positioned in depth. However, the adjoint [Formula: see text] propagators used for backward propagating the residual data are also attenuative. Thus, the inverted images from [Formula: see text]-LSRTM with a small number of iterations are often observed to have lower resolution when compared with the benchmark acoustic LSRTM images from acoustic data. To increase the resolution and accelerate the convergence of [Formula: see text]-LSRTM, we used viscoacoustic deblurring filters as a preconditioner for [Formula: see text]-LSRTM. These filters can be estimated by matching a simulated migration image to its reference reflectivity model. Numerical tests on synthetic and field data demonstrate that [Formula: see text]-LSRTM combined with viscoacoustic deblurring filters can produce images with higher resolution and more balanced amplitudes than images from acoustic RTM, acoustic LSRTM, and [Formula: see text]-LSRTM when there is strong attenuation in the background medium. Our preconditioning method is also shown to improve the convergence rate of [Formula: see text]-LSRTM by more than 30% in some cases and significantly compensate for the lossy artifacts in RTM images.


Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. S75-S84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Dutta ◽  
Matteo Giboli ◽  
Cyril Agut ◽  
Paul Williamson ◽  
Gerard T. Schuster

Least-squares migration (LSM) can produce images with better balanced amplitudes and fewer artifacts than standard migration. The conventional objective function used for LSM minimizes the L2-norm of the data residual between the predicted and the observed data. However, for field-data applications in which the recorded data are noisy and undersampled, the conventional formulation of LSM fails to provide the desired uplift in the quality of the inverted image. We have developed a least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) method using local Radon-based preconditioning to overcome the low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) problem of noisy or severely undersampled data. A high-resolution local Radon transform of the reflectivity is used, and sparseness constraints are imposed on the inverted reflectivity in the local Radon domain. The sparseness constraint is that the inverted reflectivity is sparse in the Radon domain and each location of the subsurface is represented by a limited number of geologic dips. The forward and the inverse mapping of the reflectivity to the local Radon domain and vice versa is done through 3D Fourier-based discrete Radon transform operators. The weights for the preconditioning are chosen to be varying locally based on the relative amplitudes of the local dips or assigned using quantile measures. Numerical tests on synthetic and field data validate the effectiveness of our approach in producing images with good S/N and fewer aliasing artifacts when compared with standard RTM or standard LSRTM.


Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. S523-S538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingluo Gu ◽  
Jianguang Han ◽  
Zhiming Ren ◽  
Zhenchun Li

Elastic reverse time migration (ERTM) is a state-of-the-art imaging technique used for determining complicated subsurface structures. However, the migrated images often suffer from low spatial resolution, low signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), and unbalanced amplitudes because the theoretical hypothesis of ERTM cannot be satisfied in practice. Although elastic least-squares reverse time migration (ELSRTM) has been proposed to address the issues of ERTM, the resulting images are generally represented by parameter perturbations such as P- and S-velocity perturbations, which have the different physical meanings from the ERTM images. To produce improved ERTM images, we used a least-squares RTM method for elastic data in isotropic media by applying least-squares inversion to ERTM. In the least-squares ERTM method, the forward operator generates multicomponent seismic data from the migrated images by applying elastic wavefield decomposition, scalar wavefield extrapolation, and wavefield recomposition operators. Additionally, the adjoint operator generates PP and PS images using ERTM, at which point the wavefield decomposition operator and scalar imaging condition are applied in the imaging process. Compared to conventional ERTM, our least-squares ERTM method enables us to produce improved ERTM images with higher resolution, more balanced amplitudes, and fewer artifacts. Several synthetic and field data examples were used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed least-squares ERTM method.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-72
Author(s):  
Yu Zhong ◽  
Hanming Gu ◽  
Yangting Liu ◽  
QingHui Mao

Elastic reverse time migration (ERTM) is developed for better characterization of complex structures by imaging multicomponent seismic data. However, conventional ERTM is subject to limitations such as finite recording aperture, limited bandwidth, and imperfect illumination. Elastic least-squares reverse time migration (ELSRTM) can improve imaging accuracy gradually with iterations by minimizing the residuals between observed and calculated multicomponent data. Conventional ELSRTM suffers from crosstalk artifacts caused by coupled elastic wavefields with different wave modes. Decomposing the coupled elastic wavefields into pure P- and S-waves is an effective method to suppress these crosstalk artifacts. Considering the trade-off between calculation accuracy and efficiency, we have developed a new ELSRTM scheme for isotropic media based on decoupled wave equations to suppress these wave mode-related crosstalk artifacts in the images of conventional ELSRTM. Pure wavefields are obtained by solving the decoupled wave equations using the finite-difference (FD) method in our new ELSRTM method. We also derive new decoupled adjoint-state wave equations, which are suitable for the elastic velocity-stress equations in isotropic media. We further propose the gradient equations based on pure wavefields to update the reflectivity images. Synthetic examples demonstrate that our new ELSRTM method can generate images that better represent the subsurface when compared with conventional ERTM and conventional ELSRTM.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Razec Cezar Sampaio Pinto da Silva Torres ◽  
Leandro Di Bartolo

ABSTRACT. Reverse time migration (RTM) is one of the most powerful methods used to generate images of the subsurface. The RTM was proposed in the early 1980s, but only recently it has been routinely used in exploratory projects involving complex geology – Brazilian pre-salt, for example. Because the method uses the two-way wave equation, RTM is able to correctly image any kind of geological environment (simple or complex), including those with anisotropy. On the other hand, RTM is computationally expensive and requires the use of computer clusters. This paper proposes to investigate the influence of anisotropy on seismic imaging through the application of RTM for tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media in pre-stack synthetic data. This work presents in detail how to implement RTM for TTI media, addressing the main issues and specific details, e.g., the computational resources required. A couple of simple models results are presented, including the application to a BP TTI 2007 benchmark model.Keywords: finite differences, wave numerical modeling, seismic anisotropy. Migração reversa no tempo em meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinadosRESUMO. A migração reversa no tempo (RTM) é um dos mais poderosos métodos utilizados para gerar imagens da subsuperfície. A RTM foi proposta no início da década de 80, mas apenas recentemente tem sido rotineiramente utilizada em projetos exploratórios envolvendo geologia complexa, em especial no pré-sal brasileiro. Por ser um método que utiliza a equação completa da onda, qualquer configuração do meio geológico pode ser corretamente tratada, em especial na presença de anisotropia. Por outro lado, a RTM é dispendiosa computacionalmente e requer o uso de clusters de computadores por parte da indústria. Este artigo apresenta em detalhes uma implementação da RTM para meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinados (TTI), abordando as principais dificuldades na sua implementação, além dos recursos computacionais exigidos. O algoritmo desenvolvido é aplicado a casos simples e a um benchmark padrão, conhecido como BP TTI 2007.Palavras-chave: diferenças finitas, modelagem numérica de ondas, anisotropia sísmica.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1719 (1) ◽  
pp. 012030
Author(s):  
Phudit Sombutsirinun ◽  
Chaiwoot Boonyasiriwat

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-73
Author(s):  
Milad Farshad ◽  
Hervé Chauris

Elastic least-squares reverse time migration is the state-of-the-art linear imaging technique to retrieve high-resolution quantitative subsurface images. A successful application requires many migration/modeling cycles. To accelerate the convergence rate, various pseudoinverse Born operators have been proposed, providing quantitative results within a single iteration, while having roughly the same computational cost as reverse time migration. However, these are based on the acoustic approximation, leading to possible inaccurate amplitude predictions as well as the ignorance of S-wave effects. To solve this problem, we extend the pseudoinverse Born operator from acoustic to elastic media to account for the elastic amplitudes of PP reflections and provide an estimate of physical density, P- and S-wave impedance models. We restrict the extension to marine environment, with the recording of pressure waves at the receiver positions. Firstly, we replace the acoustic Green's functions by their elastic version, without modifying the structure of the original pseudoinverse Born operator. We then apply a Radon transform to the results of the first step to calculate the angle-dependent response. Finally, we simultaneously invert for the physical parameters using a weighted least-squares method. Through numerical experiments, we first illustrate the consequences of acoustic approximation on elastic data, leading to inaccurate parameter inversion as well as to artificial reflector inclusion. Then we demonstrate that our method can simultaneously invert for elastic parameters in the presence of complex uncorrelated structures, inaccurate background models, and Gaussian noisy data.


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