Estimating
            P
            Wave Velocity and Attenuation Structures Using Full Waveform Inversion Based on a Time Domain Complex‐Valued Viscoacoustic Wave Equation: The Method

Thin sand-mud-coal interbedded layers and multiples caused by shallow water pose great challenges to conventional 3D multi-channel seismic techniques used to detect the deeply buried reservoirs in the Qiuyue field. In 2017, a dense ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) acquisition program acquired a four-component dataset in East China Sea. To delineate the deep reservoir structures in the Qiuyue field, we applied a full-waveform inversion (FWI) workflow to this dense four-component OBS dataset. After preprocessing, including receiver geometry correction, moveout correction, component rotation, and energy transformation from 3D to 2D, a preconditioned first-arrival traveltime tomography based on an improved scattering integral algorithm is applied to construct an initial P-wave velocity model. To eliminate the influence of the wavelet estimation process, a convolutional-wavefield-based objective function for the preprocessed hydrophone component is used during acoustic FWI. By inverting the waveforms associated with early arrivals, a relatively high-resolution underground P-wave velocity model is obtained, with updates at 2.0 km and 4.7 km depth. Initial S-wave velocity and density models are then constructed based on their prior relationships to the P-wave velocity, accompanied by a reciprocal source-independent elastic full-waveform inversion to refine both velocity models. Compared to a traditional workflow, guided by stacking velocity analysis or migration velocity analysis, and using only the pressure component or other single-component, the workflow presented in this study represents a good approach for inverting the four-component OBS dataset to characterize sub-seafloor velocity structures.

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Semiglobal viscoacoustic full-waveform inversion

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/geo2017-0773.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 84 (2) ◽

pp. R271-R293 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Nuno V. da Silva ◽

Gang Yao ◽

Michael Warner

Keyword(s):

Physical Properties ◽

Wave Velocity ◽

Seismic Data ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Data Set ◽

Intrinsic Attenuation ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity

Full-waveform inversion deals with estimating physical properties of the earth’s subsurface by matching simulated to recorded seismic data. Intrinsic attenuation in the medium leads to the dispersion of propagating waves and the absorption of energy — media with this type of rheology are not perfectly elastic. Accounting for that effect is necessary to simulate wave propagation in realistic geologic media, leading to the need to estimate intrinsic attenuation from the seismic data. That increases the complexity of the constitutive laws leading to additional issues related to the ill-posed nature of the inverse problem. In particular, the joint estimation of several physical properties increases the null space of the parameter space, leading to a larger domain of ambiguity and increasing the number of different models that can equally well explain the data. We have evaluated a method for the joint inversion of velocity and intrinsic attenuation using semiglobal inversion; this combines quantum particle-swarm optimization for the estimation of the intrinsic attenuation with nested gradient-descent iterations for the estimation of the P-wave velocity. This approach takes advantage of the fact that some physical properties, and in particular the intrinsic attenuation, can be represented using a reduced basis, substantially decreasing the dimension of the search space. We determine the feasibility of the method and its robustness to ambiguity with 2D synthetic examples. The 3D inversion of a field data set for a geologic medium with transversely isotropic anisotropy in velocity indicates the feasibility of the method for inverting large-scale real seismic data and improving the data fitting. The principal benefits of the semiglobal multiparameter inversion are the recovery of the intrinsic attenuation from the data and the recovery of the true undispersed infinite-frequency P-wave velocity, while mitigating ambiguity between the estimated parameters.

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Localizing CO2 at Sleipner — Seismic images versus P-wave velocities from waveform inversion

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/geo2012-0216.1 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. B131-B146 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Manuel Queißer ◽

Satish C. Singh

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Wave Velocities ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity ◽

Seismic Image ◽

P Wave Velocities ◽

Seismic Images

The presence of injected [Formula: see text] in the Utsira Sand at the Sleipner site, Norway, is associated with a high negative P-wave velocity anomaly; that is, a low postinjection velocity and a strong seismic response. Time-lapse seismic imaging of [Formula: see text] injection at Sleipner is thus a viable monitoring tool of the injected [Formula: see text]. The work flow usually involves conventional seismic processing, including stacking, and results in seismic images. Multiple reflections, interference effects such as tuning, and the velocity pushdown effect due to [Formula: see text] injection render these seismic images ambiguous in terms of the localization and the quantification of the [Formula: see text] in the Utsira Sand. Nonetheless, seismic images often form the basis for analyses that aim to quantify the injected [Formula: see text]. We employed elastic 2D full waveform inversion to invert prestack seismic Sleipner data from preinjection (1994) and postinjection (1999) and compared the resulting postinjection P-wave velocity model with the corresponding seismic image. We found that the high-amplitude reflections in the seismic image do not everywhere coincide with low postinjection P-wave velocities. Drawing extensive and integrated conclusions is out of our scope, because this would require full control over the seismic data processing and a more comprehensive forward modeling. For instance, modeling should be done in 3D and an adequate anelasticity formulation should be added. However, the waveform inversion scheme we used accounts for all the aforementioned elastic propagation effects. The results therefore suggested that the exclusive use of seismic images to quantify [Formula: see text] could be revised and full waveform inversion should be added to the analysis toolbox.

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Imaging the P‐Wave Velocity Structure of Arctic Subsea Permafrost Using Laplace‐Domain Full‐Waveform Inversion

Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface ◽

10.1029/2020jf005941 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 126 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Seung‐Goo Kang ◽

Young Keun Jin ◽

Ugeun Jang ◽

Mathieu J. Duchesne ◽

Changsoo Shin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Velocity Structure ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Laplace Domain ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity ◽

Subsea Permafrost ◽

P Wave Velocity Structure

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Interparameter trade-off quantification for isotropic-elastic full-waveform inversion with various model parameterizations

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/geo2017-0832.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 84 (2) ◽

pp. R185-R206 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Wenyong Pan ◽

Kristopher A. Innanen ◽

Yu Geng ◽

Junxiao Li

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

Physical Parameters ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

S Wave ◽

Trade Off ◽

Full Waveform ◽

Trade Offs ◽

P Wave Velocity

Simultaneous determination of multiple physical parameters using full-waveform inversion (FWI) suffers from interparameter trade-off difficulties. Analyzing the interparameter trade-offs in different model parameterizations of isotropic-elastic FWI, and thus determining the appropriate model parameterization, are critical for efficient inversion and obtaining reliable inverted models. Five different model parameterizations are considered and compared including velocity-density, modulus-density, impedance-density, and two velocity-impedance parameterizations. The scattering radiation patterns are first used for interparameter trade-off analysis. Furthermore, a new framework is developed to evaluate the interparameter trade-off based upon multiparameter Hessian-vector products: Multiparameter point spread functions (MPSFs) and interparameter contamination sensitivity kernels (ICSKs), which provide quantitative, second-order measurements of the interparameter contaminations. In the numerical experiments, the interparameter trade-offs in various model parameterizations are evaluated using the MPSFs and ICSKs. Inversion experiments are carried out with simple Gaussian-anomaly models and a complex Marmousi model. Overall, the parameterization of the P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and density, and the parameterization of the P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and S-wave impedance perform best for reconstructing all of the physical parameters. Isotropic-elastic FWI of the Hussar low-frequency data set with various model parameterizations verifies our conclusions.

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Acoustic global–local full‐waveform inversion for P‐wave velocity estimation of near‐surface seismic data acquired in Luni, Italy

Near Surface Geophysics ◽

10.1002/nsg.12096 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 205-215

Author(s):

Eusebio Stucchi ◽

Silvio Pierini ◽

Andrea Tognarelli ◽

Jimi Brunod

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Seismic Data ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

Velocity Estimation ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Near Surface ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity

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Accurate Reconstruction of Shallow P-wave Velocity Model with Time-windowed Elastic Full-waveform Inversion

80th EAGE Conference and Exhibition 2018 ◽

10.3997/2214-4609.201801305 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

N. Athanasopoulos ◽

E. Manukyan ◽

T. Bohlen ◽

H. Maurer

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

Velocity Model ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity ◽

Accurate Reconstruction

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Addressing viscous effects in acoustic full-waveform inversion

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/geo2018-0027.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 83 (6) ◽

pp. R611-R628 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Òscar Calderón Agudo ◽

Nuno Vieira da Silva ◽

Michael Warner ◽

Tatiana Kalinicheva ◽

Joanna Morgan

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

Velocity Model ◽

P Wave ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

Viscous Effects ◽

Approximate Estimate ◽

Intrinsic Attenuation ◽

Full Waveform ◽

P Wave Velocity

In conventional full-waveform inversion (FWI), viscous effects are typically neglected, and this is likely to adversely affect the recovery of P-wave velocity. We have developed a strategy to mitigate viscous effects based on the use of matching filters with the aim of improving the performance of acoustic FWI. The approach requires an approximate estimate of the intrinsic attenuation model, and it is one to three times more expensive than conventional acoustic FWI. First, we perform 2D synthetic tests to study the impact of viscoacoustic effects on the recorded wavefield and analyze how that affects the recovered velocity models after acoustic FWI. Then, we apply the current method on the generated data and determine that it mitigates viscous effects successfully even in the presence of noise. We find that having an approximate estimate for intrinsic attenuation, even when these effects are strong, leads to improvements in resolution and a more accurate recovery of the P-wave velocity. Then, we implement and develop our method on a 2D field data set using Gabor transforms to obtain an approximate intrinsic attenuation model and inversion frequencies of up to 24 Hz. The analysis of the results indicates that there is an improvement in terms of resolution and continuity of the layers on the recovered P-wave velocity model, leading to an improved flattening of gathers and a closer match of the inverted velocity model with the migrated seismic data.

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A hierarchical elastic full-waveform inversion scheme based on wavefield separation and the multistep-length approach

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/geo2015-0431.1 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 81 (3) ◽

pp. R99-R123 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Zhiming Ren ◽

Yang Liu

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

Model Parameters ◽

Full Waveform Inversion ◽

S Wave ◽

Wave Velocities ◽

Full Waveform ◽

Wavefield Separation ◽

P Wave Velocity

Elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) updates model parameters by minimizing the residuals of the P- and S-wavefields, resulting in more local minima and serious nonlinearity. In addition, the coupling of different parameters degrades the inversion results. To address these problems, we have developed a hierarchical elastic FWI scheme based on wavefield separation and a multistep-length gradient approach. First, we have derived the gradients expressed by different wave modes; analyzed the crosstalk between various parameters; and evaluated the sensitivity of separated P-wave, separated S-wave, and P- and S-wave misfit functions. Then, a practical four-stage inversion workflow was developed. In the first stage, conventional FWI is used to achieve rough estimates of the P- and S-wave velocities. In the second stage, we only invert the P-wave velocity applying the separated P-wavefields when strong S-wave energy is involved, or we merely update the S-wave velocity by matching the separated S-wavefields for the weak S-wave case. The PP and PS gradient formulas are used in these two cases, respectively. Therefore, the nonlinearity of inversion and the crosstalk between parameters are greatly reduced. In the third stage, the multistep-length gradient scheme is adopted. The density structure can be improved owing to the use of individual step lengths for different parameters. In the fourth stage, we make minor adjustments to the recovered P- and S-wave velocities and density by implementing conventional FWI again. Synthetic examples have determined that our hierarchical FWI scheme with the aforementioned steps obtains more plausible models than the conventional method. Inversion results of each stage and any three stages reveal that wavefield decomposition and the multistep-length approach are helpful to improve the accuracy of velocities and density, respectively, and all the stages of our hierarchical FWI method are necessary to give a good recovery of P- and S-wave velocities and density.

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Time–frequency windowing in multiparameter elastic FWI of shallow seismic wavefield

Geophysical Journal International ◽

10.1093/gji/ggaa242 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 222 (2) ◽

pp. 1164-1177

Author(s):

Nikolaos Athanasopoulos ◽

Edgar Manukyan ◽

Thomas Bohlen ◽

Hansruedi Maurer

Keyword(s):

Wave Velocity ◽

Time Window ◽

Mass Density ◽

Waveform Inversion ◽

P Wave ◽

S Wave ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Full Waveform ◽

Shallow Seismic ◽

P Wave Velocity

SUMMARY Full-waveform inversion of shallow seismic wavefields is a promising method to infer multiparameter models of elastic material properties (S-wave velocity, P-wave velocity and mass density) of the shallow subsurface with high resolution. Previous studies used either the refracted Pwaves to reconstructed models of P-wave velocity or the high-amplitude Rayleigh waves to infer the S-wave velocity structure. In this work, we propose a combination of both wavefields using continuous time–frequency windowing. We start with the contribution of refracted P waves and gradually increase the time window to account for scattered body waves, higher mode Rayleigh waves and finally the fundamental Rayleigh wave mode. The opening of the time window is combined with opening the frequency bandwidth of input signals to avoid cycle skipping. Synthetic reconstruction tests revealed that the reconstruction of P-wave velocity model and mass density can be improved. The S-wave velocity reconstruction is still accurate and robust and is slightly benefitted by time–frequency windowing. In a field data application, we observed that time–frequency windowing improves the consistency of multiparameter models. The inferred models are in good agreement with independent geophysical information obtained from ground-penetrating radar and full-waveform inversion of SH waves.

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