Wave‐equation migration can form an accurate image of the subsurface from suitable VSP data. The image’s extent and resolution are determined by the receiver array dimensions and the source location(s). Experiments with synthetic and real data show that the region of reliable image extent is defined by the specular “zone of illumination.” Migration is achieved through wave‐field extrapolation, subject to an imaging procedure. Wave‐field extrapolation is based upon the scalar wave equation and, for VSP data, is conveniently handled by the Kirchhoff integral. The migration of VSP data calls for imaging very close to the borehole, as well as imaging in the far field. This dual requirement is met by retaining the near‐field term of the integral. The complete integral solution is readily controlled by various weighting devices and processing strategies, whose worth is demonstrated on real and synthetic data.
An explicit marching-on-in-time scheme for solving the time domain Kirchhoff integral equation