Transmission‐reflection tomography: Application to reverse VSP data

Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 884-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijian Mao ◽  
Graham W. Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Transmission Tomography ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Lower Velocity ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Vsp Data ◽  
Reflection Tomography ◽  
Transmission And Reflection

A multiphase tomographic algorithm is presented that allows 2-D and 3-D slowness (inverse of velocity) and variable reflector depth to be reconstructed simultaneously from both transmission and reflection traveltimes. We analyze the ambiguity in the determination of velocity and depth in transmission and reflection data and realize that depth perturbation is more sensitive to reflection traveltime anomalies than slowness perturbation, whereas the reverse is true of transmission traveltime anomalies. Because of the constraints on velocity and depth provided by the different wave types, this algorithm reduces the ambiguity substantially between velocity and depth prevalent in reflection tomography and also avoids the undetermined problem in transmission tomography. The linearized inversion was undertaken iteratively by decoupling velocity parameters from reflector depths. A rapid 2-D and 3-D ray‐tracing algorithm is used to compute transmission and reflection traveltimes and partial derivatives with respect to slowness and reflector depth. Both depth and velocity are parameterized in terms of cubic B‐spline functions. Synthetic examples indicate the improvement in tomographic results when both transmission and reflection times are included. The method has been applied to a reverse vertical seismic profile (VSP) data set recorded on the British coal measures along a crossed‐linear array. Traveltimes were picked automatically by the simultaneous determination of time delays and stacking weights using a waveform matching technique. The tomographic inversion of the observed reverse VSP images two fault‐zones of lower velocity than the surrounding media. The location of the faults was confirmed by near‐by reflection lines. The technique can be applied to offset VSPs or reverse VSPs and coincident VSP and surface reflection data.

Integrated prestack depth migration of vertical seismic profile and surface seismic data from the Rocky Mountain Foothills of southern Alberta, Canada

Geophysics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1782-1791 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Graziella Kirtland Grech ◽  
Don C. Lawton ◽  
Scott Cheadle
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Vertical Seismic Profile ◽  
Prestack Depth Migration ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Vsp Data

We have developed an anisotropic prestack depth migration code that can migrate either vertical seismic profile (VSP) or surface seismic data. We use this migration code in a new method for integrated VSP and surface seismic depth imaging. Instead of splicing the VSP image into the section derived from surface seismic data, we use the same migration algorithm and a single velocity model to migrate both data sets to a common output grid. We then scale and sum the two images to yield one integrated depth‐migrated section. After testing this method on synthetic surface seismic and VSP data, we applied it to field data from a 2D surface seismic line and a multioffset VSP from the Rocky Mountain Foothills of southern Alberta, Canada. Our results show that the resulting integrated image exhibits significant improvement over that obtained from (a) the migration of either data set alone or (b) the conventional splicing approach. The integrated image uses the broader frequency bandwidth of the VSP data to provide higher vertical resolution than the migration of the surface seismic data. The integrated image also shows enhanced structural detail, since no part of the surface seismic section is eliminated, and good event continuity through the use of a single migration–velocity model, obtained by an integrated interpretation of borehole and surface seismic data. This enhanced migrated image enabled us to perform a more robust interpretation with good well ties.

scholarly journals Reconstructing the primary reflections in seismic data by Marchenko redatuming and convolutional interferometry

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. Q15-Q26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Angelo Meles ◽  
Kees Wapenaar ◽  
Andrew Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Model ◽  
Reverse Time ◽  
Reverse Time Migration ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Reference Velocity ◽  
Time Migration ◽  
Recorded Data

State-of-the-art methods to image the earth’s subsurface using active-source seismic reflection data involve reverse time migration. This and other standard seismic processing methods such as velocity analysis provide best results only when all waves in the data set are primaries (waves reflected only once). A variety of methods are therefore deployed as processing to predict and remove multiples (waves reflected several times); however, accurate removal of those predicted multiples from the recorded data using adaptive subtraction techniques proves challenging, even in cases in which they can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. We present a new, alternative strategy to construct a parallel data set consisting only of primaries, which is calculated directly from recorded data. This obviates the need for multiple prediction and removal methods. Primaries are constructed by using convolutional interferometry to combine the first-arriving events of upgoing and direct-wave downgoing Green’s functions to virtual receivers in the subsurface. The required upgoing wavefields to virtual receivers are constructed by Marchenko redatuming. Crucially, this is possible without detailed models of the earth’s subsurface reflectivity structure: Similar to the most migration techniques, the method only requires surface reflection data and estimates of direct (nonreflected) arrivals between the virtual subsurface sources and the acquisition surface. We evaluate the method on a stratified synclinal model. It is shown to be particularly robust against errors in the reference velocity model used and to improve the migrated images substantially.

Waveform tomography at a groundwater contamination site: Surface reflection data

Geophysics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. G45-G55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuchun Gao ◽  
Alan Levander ◽  
R. Gerhard Pratt ◽  
Colin A. Zelt ◽  
Gian-Luigi Fradelizio
Keyword(s):  
Groundwater Contamination ◽  
Nonaqueous Phase Liquids ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
Lateral Velocity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Traveltime Tomography ◽  
Velocity Models ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Waveform Tomography

We have applied acoustic-waveform tomography to 45 2D seismic profiles to image the 3D geometry of a buried paleochannel at a groundwater-contamination site at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The paleochannel, which is incised into an alluvium-covered clay aquitard, acts as a trap for dense nonaqueous-phase liquids (DNAPLs) that contaminate the shallowest groundwater system in the study area. The 2D profiles were extracted from a 3D surface reflection data set. First-arrival traveltime tomography provided initial velocity models for the waveform tomography. We inverted for six frequency components in the band [Formula: see text] of the direct and refracted waves to produce 45 2D velocity models. The flanks and bottom of a channel with a maximum depth of about [Formula: see text] were well modeled in most of the 45 parallel 2D slices, which allowed us to construct a 3D image of the channel by combining and interpolating between the 45 image slices. The 3D model of the channel will be useful for siting extraction wells within the site remediation program. The alluvium that fills the channel showed marked vertical and lateral velocity heterogeneity. Traveltime tomography and waveform tomography can be complementary approaches. Used together, they can provide high-resolution images of complicated shallow structures.

scholarly journals Interferometric identification of surface-related multiples

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. Q41-Q52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Boullenger ◽  
Deyan Draganov
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Interferometric Method ◽  
Feedback Information ◽  
Arrival Times ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Multiple Prediction ◽  
Virtual Events

The theory of seismic interferometry predicts that crosscorrelations of recorded seismic responses at two receivers yield an estimate of the interreceiver seismic response. The interferometric process applied to surface-reflection data involves the summation, over sources, of crosscorrelated traces, and it allows retrieval of an estimate of the interreceiver reflection response. In particular, the crosscorrelations of the data with surface-related multiples in the data produce the retrieval of pseudophysical reflections (virtual events with the same kinematics as physical reflections in the original data). Thus, retrieved pseudophysical reflections can provide feedback information about the surface multiples. From this perspective, we have developed a data-driven interferometric method to detect and predict the arrival times of surface-related multiples in recorded reflection data using the retrieval of virtual data as diagnosis. The identification of the surface multiples is based on the estimation of source positions in the stationary-phase regions of the retrieved pseudophysical reflections, thus not necessarily requiring sources and receivers on the same grid. We have evaluated the method of interferometric identification with a two-layer acoustic example and tested it on a more complex synthetic data set. The results determined that we are able to identify the prominent surface multiples in a large range of the reflection data. Although missing near offsets proved to cause major problems in multiple-prediction schemes based on convolutions and inversions, missing near offsets does not impede our method from identifying surface multiples. Such interferometric diagnosis could be used to control the effectiveness of conventional multiple-removal schemes, such as adaptive subtraction of multiples predicted by convolution of the data.

Determination of anisotropic velocity models from walkaway VSP data acquired in the presence of dip

Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 723-729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin M. Sayers
Keyword(s):  
Transversely Isotropic ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Slowness Surface ◽  
Velocity Models ◽  
Receiver Array ◽  
Strike Direction ◽  
Vsp Data ◽  
Walkaway Vsp ◽  
Oriented Parallel

Wide‐aperture walkaway vertical seismic profile (VSP) data acquired through transversely isotropic horizontal layers can be used to determine the P phase‐slowness surface, local to a receiver array in a borehole. In the presence of dip, errors in the slowness surface may occur if the medium is assumed to be layered horizontally. If the acquisition plane is oriented parallel to the dip direction, the derived slowness is too large for sources offset from the well in the down‐dip direction and too small for sources offset from the well in the up‐dip direction. For acquisition parallel to the strike of the layers, the recovery of the P phase‐slowness in the vicinity of the receiver array is excellent. It is therefore preferable to orient the walkaway VSP in the strike direction to estimate the anisotropic parameters of the medium in the vicinity of a receiver array. However, this may not be possible. If the dip direction of all layers has the same azimuth, the variation of walkaway traveltimes with azimuth has a simple form. This allows data from a single walkaway VSP extending both sides of a well to be inverted for the local anisotropic P phase‐slowness surface at the receivers even in the presence of dip. If data are acquired at more than one azimuth, the dip direction can be determined.

scholarly journals Higher-Resolution Determination of Zero-Offset Common-Reflection-Surface Stack Parameters

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Endrias G. Asgedom ◽  
Leiv J. Gelius ◽  
Martin Tygel
Keyword(s):  
Data Set ◽  
Multiple Signal Classification ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Estimated Parameters ◽  
Underlying Principle ◽  
Common Reflection Surface ◽  
Zero Offset ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Parameter Estimation Techniques

We developed a higher resolution method for the estimation of the three travel-time parameters that are used in the 2D zero-offset, Common-Reflection-Surface stack method. The underlying principle in this method is to replace the coherency measure performed using semblance with that of MUSIC (multiple signal classification) pseudospectrum that utilizes theeigenstructureof the data covariance matrix. The performance of the two parameter estimation techniques (i.e., semblance and MUSIC) was investigated using both synthetic seismic diffraction and reflection data corrupted with white Gaussian noise, as well as a multioffset ground penetrating radar (GPR) field data set. The estimated parameters employing MUSIC were shown to be superior of those from semblance.

An integrated surface and borehole seismic case study: Fort St. John Graben area, Alberta, Canada

Geophysics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (11) ◽  
pp. 1662-1675
Author(s):  
Ronald C. Hinds ◽  
Richard Kuzmiski ◽  
Neil L. Anderson ◽  
Barry R. Richards
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Well Log ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Seismic Control ◽  
Subsurface Geology ◽  
Vsp Data ◽  
Borehole Seismic ◽  
Sandstone Facies

The deltaic sandstones of the basal Kiskatinaw Formation (Stoddard Group, upper Mississippian) were preferentially deposited within structural lows in a regime characterized by faulting and structural subsidence. In the Fort St. John Graben area, northwest Alberta, Canada, these sandstone facies can form reservoirs where they are laterally sealed against the flanks of upthrown fault blocks. Exploration for basal Kiskatinaw reservoirs generally entails the acquisition and interpretation of surface seismic data prior to drilling. These data are used to map the grabens in which these sandstones were deposited, and the horst blocks which act as lateral seals. Subsequent to drilling, vertical seismic profile (VSP) surveys can be run. These data supplement the surface seismic and well log control in that: 1) VSP data can be directly correlated to surface seismic data. As a result, the surface seismic control can be accurately tied to the subsurface geology; 2) Multiples, identified on VSP data, can be deconvolved out of the surface seismic data; and 3) The subsurface, in the vicinity of the borehole, is more clearly resolved on the VSP data than on surface seismic control. On the Fort St. John Graben data set incorporated into this paper, faults which are not well resolved on the surface seismic data, are better delineated on VSP data. The interpretive processing of these data illustrate the use of the seismic profiling technique in the search for hydrocarbons in structurally complex areas.

Diffraction tomography and multisource holography applied to seismic imaging

Geophysics ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ru‐Shan Wu ◽  
M. Nafi Toksöz
Keyword(s):  
Sampling Interval ◽  
Imaging Method ◽  
Diffraction Tomography ◽  
Reconstruction Process ◽  
Numerical Examples ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Rytov Approximation ◽  
Long Tails ◽  
Vsp Data

Seismic tomography is emerging as an imaging method for determining subsurface structure. When the view‐angle coverage is limited and the scale of the medium inhomogeneities is comparable with the wavelength, as is often true in geophysical applications, the performance of ordinary ray tomography becomes poor. Other tomographic methods are needed to improve the imaging process. Here we study diffraction tomography and multisource holography and evaluate their performances for surface reflection profiling (SRP), vertical seismic profiling (VSP), and cross‐hole measurements. Theoretical formulations are derived for two‐dimensional geometry in terms of line sources along a source line and line receivers along a receiver line. The theory for diffraction tomography is based on the Born or Rytov approximation. The performances of diffraction tomography and multisource holography are evaluated by examining the information coverage in the spatial frequency domain and by numerical examples. Multisource holography, which is similar to Kirchhoff‐type migration, often gives distorted images of the object. This distortion causes long tails of the image in the case of SRP and a strong noise belt in the case of VSP and is due to incomplete and nonuniform coverage of the object spectrum. The filtering operation of diffraction tomography helps in correcting the nonuniform coverage (including duplication) of the object spectrum in the reconstruction process and therefore reduces the distortions. On the other hand, multisource holography is better suited for imaging sharp boundaries with large acoustic impedance contrasts since diffraction tomography is restricted, as presently formulated, to weak inhomogeneities. In addition, multisource holography has the flexibility to be used with an arbitrary number of sources (including a single source). Its sampling interval is not restricted by the Nyquist frequency. Numerical examples show that combined data sets (such as surface reflection data combined with VSP data, or cross‐hole data combined with surface data, etc.) improve the image quality.

Synthetic finite‐offset vertical seismic profiles for laterally varying media

Geophysics ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 627-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
George A. McMechan
Keyword(s):  
Drill Hole ◽  
Seismic Profile ◽  
Rock Properties ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
Vertical Seismic Profiles ◽  
Vsp Data ◽  
Lateral Variations ◽  
Lateral Structure

The analysis of vertical seismic profile (VSP) data is generally directed toward determination of rock properties (such as velocity, impedance, attenuation, and anisotropy) as functions of depth (that is, in a one‐dimensional model). If VSPs are extended to include observations from sources at multiple, finite offsets, then lateral variation in structure near the drill hole can be studied. Synthetic offset VSPs are computed by an acoustic finite‐difference algorithm for two‐dimensional models that include the main types of structural traps. These show that diagnostic lateral variations can be detected and interpreted in VSPs. In a VSP, lateral structure variations may produce changes in the type and number of arrivals, in amplitudes, in time and phase shifts, in interference patterns, in curvature of arrival branches, and in the focusing and defocusing of energy. All of these effects are functions of the positions of the source(s) and receiver(s); numerical modeling is a potentially useful tool for interpretation of VSP data from laterally varying structure.

Three-dimensional seismic-while-drilling (SWD) migration in the angular frequency domain

Geophysics ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 70 (6) ◽  
pp. S111-S120
Author(s):  
Fabio Rocca ◽  
Massimiliano Vassallo ◽  
Giancarlo Bernasconi
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Domain ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Angular Frequency ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Surface Reflection ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Seismic Depth Migration

Seismic depth migration back-propagates seismic data in the correct depth position using information about the velocity of the medium. Usually, Kirchhoff summation is the preferred migration procedure for seismic-while-drilling (SWD) data because it can handle virtually any configuration of sources and receivers and one can compensate for irregular spatial sampling of the array elements (receivers and sources). Under the assumption of a depth-varying velocity model, with receivers arranged along a horizontal circumference and sources placed along the central vertical axis, we reformulate the Kirchhoff summation in the angular frequency domain. In this way, the migration procedure becomes very efficient because the migrated volume is obtained by an inverse Fourier transform of the weighted data. The algorithm is suitable for 3D SWD acquisitions when the aforementioned hypothesis holds. We show migration tests on SWD synthetic data, and we derive solutions to reduce the migration artifacts and to control aliasing. The procedure is also applied on a real 3D SWD data set. The result compares satisfactorily with the seismic stack section obtained from surface reflection data and with the results from traditional Kirchhoff migration.

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