Generalized f-k (frequency‐wavenumber) migration in arbitrarily varying media

Migration requires one‐way wave continuation. In the spatial domain, one‐way wave equations are derived based on various approximations to an assumed dispersion relation. In the frequency‐wavenumber domain, the well known f-k method and the phase‐shift method are strictly valid only within homogeneous models and layered models, respectively. In this paper, a frequency‐wavenumber domain method is presented for one‐way wave continuation in arbitrarily varying media. In the method, the downward continuation is accomplished, not with plane waves individually as in the f-k or the phase‐shift method, but with the whole spectrum of plane waves simultaneously in order to account for the coupling among the plane waves due to lateral inhomogeneity. The method is based on a matrix integral equation. The method has the following merits: (1) The method is a generalization of the f-k and the phase‐shift methods, valid in arbitrarily varying models. (2) The method has physical interpretations in terms of upgoing and downgoing plane waves, and as such the method has well defined steps leading from full‐wave continuation (two‐way wave) to one‐way wave continuation for migration. (3) The method is rigorous; the only approximations in the method—other than the one‐way wave approximation necessary for migration—are the discretization of a continuous system (which is necessary in computer methods) and imperfections associated with the limited spatial aperture of the data; as such, the method can achieve high solution accuracy. (4) The method can be fast, since computations are mainly matrix‐vector multiplications, which are easily vectorizable. In particular, compared to spatial domain methods, I contend that the method is (1) more rigorous in one‐way wave theory, (2) more accurate in migration of high‐dip events, and (3) faster for smooth models. I applied the method to a few examples of zero‐offset data migration, including imaging a point diffractor below a dipping interface, migration with sharp lateral variations in velocity, and migration with smooth lateral variations in velocity.