Velocity‐stack and slant‐stack stochastic inversion

Geophysics ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 2727-2741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey R. Thorson ◽  
Jon F. Claerbout

Normal moveout (NMO) and stacking, an important step in analysis of reflection seismic data, involves summation of seismic data over paths represented by a family of hyperbolic curves. This summation process is a linear transformation and maps the data into what might be called a velocity space: a two‐dimensional set of points indexed by time and velocity. Examination of data in velocity space is used for analysis of subsurface velocities and filtering of undesired coherent events (e.g., multiples), but the filtering step is useful only if an approximate inverse to the NMO and stack operation is available. One way to effect velocity filtering is to use the operator [Formula: see text] (defined as NMO and stacking) and its adjoint L as a transform pair, but this leads to unacceptable filtered output. Designing a better estimated inverse to L than [Formula: see text] is a generalization of the inversion problem of computerized tomography: deconvolving out the point‐spread function after back projection. The inversion process is complicated by missing data, because surface seismic data are recorded only within a finite spatial aperture on the Earth’s surface. Our approach to solving the problem of an ill‐conditioned or nonunique inverse [Formula: see text], brought on by missing data, is to design a stochastic inverse to L. Starting from a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator, a system of equations can be set up in which a priori information is incorporated into a sparseness measure: the output of the stochastic inverse is forced to be locally focused, in order to obtain the best possible resolution in velocity space. The size of the resulting nonlinear system of equations is immense, but using a few iterations with a gradient descent algorithm is adequate to obtain a reasonable solution. This theory may also be applied to other large, sparse linear operators. The stochastic inverse of the slant‐stack operator (a particular form of the Radon transform), can be developed in a parallel manner, and will yield an accurate slant‐stack inverse pair.

Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. V137-V148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Turquais ◽  
Endrias G. Asgedom ◽  
Walter Söllner

We have addressed the seismic data denoising problem, in which the noise is random and has an unknown spatiotemporally varying variance. In seismic data processing, random noise is often attenuated using transform-based methods. The success of these methods in denoising depends on the ability of the transform to efficiently describe the signal features in the data. Fixed transforms (e.g., wavelets, curvelets) do not adapt to the data and might fail to efficiently describe complex morphologies in the seismic data. Alternatively, dictionary learning methods adapt to the local morphology of the data and provide state-of-the-art denoising results. However, conventional denoising by dictionary learning requires a priori information on the noise variance, and it encounters difficulties when applied for denoising seismic data in which the noise variance is varying in space or time. We have developed a coherence-constrained dictionary learning (CDL) method for denoising that does not require any a priori information related to the signal or noise. To denoise a given window of a seismic section using CDL, overlapping small 2D patches are extracted and a dictionary of patch-sized signals is trained to learn the elementary features embedded in the seismic signal. For each patch, using the learned dictionary, a sparse optimization problem is solved, and a sparse approximation of the patch is computed to attenuate the random noise. Unlike conventional dictionary learning, the sparsity of the approximation is constrained based on coherence such that it does not need a priori noise variance or signal sparsity information and is still optimal to filter out Gaussian random noise. The denoising performance of the CDL method is validated using synthetic and field data examples, and it is compared with the K-SVD and FX-Decon denoising. We found that CDL gives better denoising results than K-SVD and FX-Decon for removing noise when the variance varies in space or time.


Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 814-830 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maurizio Fedi

The depth to the top, or bottom, and the density of a 3-D homogeneous source can be estimated from its gravity or magnetic anomalies by using a priori information on the maximum and minimum source depths. For the magnetic case, the magnetization direction is assumed to be constant and known. The source is assumed to be within a layer of known depth to the top h and thickness t. A depth model, satisfying both the data and the a priori information is found, together with its associated density/magnetization contrast. The methodology first derives, from the measured data, a set of apparent densities [Formula: see text] (or magnetizations), which do not depend on the layer parameters h and t, but only on source thickness. A nonlinear system of equations based on [Formula: see text], with source thicknesses as unknowns, is constructed. To simplify the solution, a more practical system of equations is formed. Each equation depends on only one value of thickness. Solving for the thicknesses, taking into account the above a priori information, the source depth to the top (or to the bottom) is determined uniquely. Finally, the depth solutions allow a unit‐density gravity model to be computed, which is compared to the observed gravity to determine the density contrast. A similar procedure can be used for magnetic data. Tests on synthetic anomalies and on real data demonstrate the good performance of this method.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-60
Author(s):  
Yonggyu Choi ◽  
Yeonghwa Jo ◽  
Soon Jee Seol ◽  
Joongmoo Byun ◽  
Young Kim

The resolution of seismic data dictates the ability to identify individual features or details in a given image, and the temporal (vertical) resolution is a function of the frequency content of a signal. To improve thin-bed resolution, broadening of the frequency spectrum is required; this has been one of the major objectives in seismic data processing. Recently, many researchers have proposed machine learning based resolution enhancement and showed their applicability. However, since the performance of machine learning depends on what the model has learned, output from training data with features different from the target field data may be poor. Thus, we present a machine learning based spectral enhancement technique considering features of seismic field data. We used a convolutional U-Net model, which preserves the temporal connectivity and resolution of the input data, and generated numerous synthetic input traces and their corresponding spectrally broadened traces for training the model. A priori information from field data, such as the estimated source wavelet and reflectivity distribution, was considered when generating the input data for complementing the field features. Using synthetic tests and field post-stack seismic data examples, we showed that the trained model with a priori information outperforms the models trained without a priori information in terms of the accuracy of enhanced signals. In addition, our new spectral enhancing method was verified through the application to the high-cut filtered data and its promising features were presented through the comparison with well log data.


Geophysics ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1116-1120 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Weglein ◽  
W. E. Boyse ◽  
J. E. Anderson

We present a formalism for obtaining the subsurface velocity configuration directly from reflection seismic data. Our approach is to apply the results obtained for inverse problems in quantum scattering theory to the reflection seismic problem. In particular, we extend the results of Moses (1956) for inverse quantum scattering and Razavy (1975) for the one‐dimensional (1-D) identification of the acoustic wave equation to the problem of identifying the velocity in the three‐dimensional (3-D) acoustic wave equation from boundary value measurements. No a priori knowledge of the subsurface velocity is assumed and all refraction, diffraction, and multiple reflection phenomena are taken into account. In addition, we explain how the idea of slant stack in processing seismic data is an important part of the proposed 3-D inverse scattering formalism.


Geophysics ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. WB39-WB51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kemal Özdemir ◽  
Ali Özbek ◽  
Dirk-Jan van Manen ◽  
Massimiliano Vassallo

In marine acquisition, the interference between the upgoing and downgoing wavefields introduces a receiver ghost which reduces the effective bandwidth of the seismic wavefield. A two-component streamer provides means for removing the receiver ghost by measuring pressure and vertical particle velocity. However, due to nonuniform and relatively sparse sampling in the crossline direction, the seismic data are usually severely aliased in the crossline direction and the deghosting may not be feasible in a true 3D sense. A true multicomponent streamer measures all components of the particle motion wavefield in addition to the pressure wavefield. This enables solving the 3D deghosting and crossline reconstruction problems simultaneously, without making assumptions on the wavefield or the subsurface. We havedeveloped two data-independent algorithms suited for multicomponent acquisition. The first algorithm reconstructs the total pressure wavefield in the crossline direction by using the pressure and the crossline component of particle motion simultaneously. The second algorithm reconstructs the upgoing pressure wavefield by using the pressure, the crossline, and the vertical components of particle motion simultaneously. Both algorithms are optimal in the minimum-mean-squares-error sense and are ideally suited for a small number of irregularly spaced samples, as is common in towed marine acquisition. We find that by using the spectrum of the wavefield as a priori information, these algorithms have the potential to overcome higher-order aliasing than what is predicted by multichannel sampling theorems. Such a priori information can be extracted from an unaliased portion of the seismic data in novel and robust manners.


Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 613-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin‐Quan Ma

A global optimization algorithm using simulated annealing has advantages over local optimization approaches in that it can escape from being trapped in local minima and it does not require a good initial model and function derivatives to find a global minimum. It is therefore more attractive and suitable for seismic waveform inversion. I adopt an improved version of a simulated annealing algorithm to invert simultaneously for acoustic impedance and layer interfaces from poststack seismic data. The earth’s subsurface is overparameterized by a series of microlayers with constant thickness in two‐way traveltime. The algorithm is constrained using the low‐frequency impedance trend and has been made computationally more efficient using this a priori information as an initial model. A search bound of each parameter, derived directly from the a priori information, reduces the nonuniqueness problem. Application of this technique to synthetic and field data examples helps one recover the true model parameters and reveals good continuity of estimated impedance across a seismic section. This approach has the capability of revealing the high‐resolution detail needed for reservoir characterization when a reliable migrated image is available with good well ties.


Geophysics ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (12) ◽  
pp. 2008-2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Lavielle

Inverse problems can be solved in different ways. One way is to define natural criteria of good recovery and build an objective function to be minimized. If, instead, we prefer a Bayesian approach, inversion can be formulated as an estimation problem where a priori information is introduced and the a posteriori distribution of the unobserved variables is maximized. When this distribution is a Gibbs distribution, these two methods are equivalent. Furthermore, global optimization of the objective function can be performed with a Monte Carlo technique, in spite of the presence of numerous local minima. Application to multitrace deconvolution is proposed. In traditional 1-D deconvolution, a set of uni‐dimensional processes models the seismic data, while a Markov random field is used for 2-D deconvolution. In fact, the introduction of a neighborhood system permits one to model the layer structure that exists in the earth and to obtain solutions that present lateral coherency. Moreover, optimization of an appropriated objective function by simulated annealing allows one to control the fit with the input data as well as the spatial distribution of the reflectors. Extension to 3-D deconvolution is straightforward.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-46
Author(s):  
Zhengwei Xu ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Wei Xiong ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Dian Wang

Describing and understanding the basement relief of sedimentary basins is vital for oil and gas exploration. The traditional method to map an interface in each spatial direction is based on three-dimensional (3D) modeling of gravity Bouguer anomalies with variable lateral and vertical density contrasts using a priori information derived from other types of geoscience datasets as constraints (e.g., well and/or seismic data). However, in the pre-exploration stage, vertical gravity, gz, which is sometimes the only available geophysical data, are typically used to recover smooth density contrast distributions under a generic set of constraints. Apparently, the use of the gz component is not sufficient to produce geologically reasonable interpretations with high resolution. To address this, we developed a novel process of hybrid inversion, combining gravity migration and inversion using the same gz dataset, to distinguish the complicated interface between basement and sedimentary basin rocks from a full-space inverted density distribution volume. First, a 3D-migrated model delineating the basic sedimentary basin structure was derived using a focusing gravity iterative migration method, where a priori information is not necessary. Subsequently, under the framework of the regularized focusing conjugate inversion algorithm, a high-resolution density contrast model was inverted for the delineation of the basement boundary by integrating the 3D-migrated density model as a priori information. We examined the method using one synthetic example and a field data case, of which a transformed resolution density matrix was developed from logarithmic space to qualitatively evaluate the practical resolutions. The high resolution of density distribution of Cretaceous basement with clear interface was achieved and verified by limited seismic data and strata markers in limited wells.


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