Parsimonious 2‐D poststack Kirchhoff depth migration

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1497-1503 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biao‐Long Hua ◽  
George A. McMechan
Keyword(s):  
Incident Wave ◽  
Input Data ◽  
Fresnel Zone ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Seismic Section ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Ray Path ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration

Efficiency of Kirchhoff migration can be much improved by using slope information from the seismic section to estimate the incident wave directions. Ray tracing is performed only back along the incident wave directions and so is much reduced. Unlike in conventional Kirchhoff implementations, there is no need to build traveltime tables, so relatively little memory and input/output use are required. Compression of the input data and restricting the contribution of each time sample to the image to lie within a Fresnel zone of its ray path further reduces the computation time. Synthetic and field data tests show that the new algorithm is about 30 times faster than traditional Kirchhoff migration for 2‐D poststack data. The main structural features may be imaged very quickly at the expense of some details. There is a tradeoff between speed and image quality; the optimal compromise is implemented by the choice of migration parameters.

Parsimonious 2D prestack Kirchhoff depth migration

Geophysics ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 1043-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biaolong Hua ◽  
George A. McMechan
Keyword(s):  
Fresnel Zone ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Common Source ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Migration Velocity Analysis ◽  
Reflector Surface ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration ◽  
Ray Parameter

The efficiency of prestack Kirchhoff depth migration is much improved by using ray parameter information measured from prestack common‐source and common‐receiver gathers. Ray tracing is performed only back along the emitted and emergent wave directions, and so is much reduced. The position of the intersection of the source and receiver rays is adjusted to satisfy the image time condition. The imaged amplitudes are spread along the local reflector surface only within the first Fresnel zone. There is no need to build traveltime tables before migration because the traveltime calculation is embedded into the migration. To further reduce the computation time, the input data are decimated by applying an amplitude threshold before the estimation of ray parameters, and only peak and trough points on each trace are searched for ray parameters. Numerical results show that the proposed implementation is typically 50–80 times faster than traditional Kirchhoff migration for synthetic 2D prestack data. The migration speed improvement is obtained at the expense of some reduction in migration quality; the optimal compromise is implemented by the choice of migration parameters. The main uses of the algorithm will be to get a fast first look at the main structural features and for iterative migration velocity analysis.

3-D prestack Kirchhoff beam migration for depth imaging

Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (5) ◽  
pp. 1592-1603 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yonghe Sun ◽  
Fuhao Qin ◽  
Steve Checkles ◽  
Jacques P. Leveille
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Environment ◽  
Small Surface ◽  
Depth Imaging ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Surface Patches ◽  
Image Volume ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration ◽  
Full Volume ◽  
Single Set

A beam implementation is presented for efficient full‐volume 3-D prestack Kirchhoff depth migration of seismic data. Unlike conventional Kirchhoff migration in which the input seismic traces in time are migrated one trace at a time into the 3-D image volume for the earth’s subsurface, the beam migration processes a group of input traces (a supergather) together. The requirement for a supergather is that the source and receiver coordinates of the traces fall into two small surface patches. The patches are small enough that a single set of time maps pertaining to the centers of the patches can be used to migrate all the traces within the supergather by Taylor expansion or interpolation. The migration of a supergather consists of two major steps: stacking the traces into a τ-P beam volume, and mapping the beams into the image volume. Since the beam volume is much smaller than the image volume, the beam migration cost is roughly proportional to the number of input supergathers. The computational speedup of beam migration over conventional Kirchhoff migration is roughly proportional to [Formula: see text], the average number of traces per supergather, resulting a theoretical speedup up to two orders of magnitudes. The beam migration was successfully implemented and has been in production use for several years. A factor of 5–25 speedup has been achieved in our in‐house depth migrations. The implementation made 3-D prestack full‐volume depth imaging feasible in a parallel distributed environment.

2‐D wavepath migration

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 1528-1537 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Sun ◽  
G. T. Schuster
Keyword(s):  
Fresnel Zone ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Velocity Analysis ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Time Sample ◽  
Grid Points ◽  
Computationally Intensive ◽  
Single Trace

Prestack Kirchhoff migration (KM) is computationally intensive for iterative velocity analysis. This is partly because each time sample in a trace must be smeared along a quasi‐ellipsoid in the model. As a less costly alternative, we use the stationary phase approximation to the KM integral so that the time sample is smeared along a small Fresnel zone portion of the quasi‐ellipsoid. This is equivalent to smearing the time samples in a trace over a 1.5‐D fat ray (i.e., wavepath), so we call this “wavepath migration” (WM). This compares to standard KM, which smears the energy in a trace along a 3‐D volume of quasi‐concentric ellipsoids. In principle, single trace migration with WM has a computational count of [Formula: see text] compared to KM, which has a computational count of [Formula: see text], where N is the number of grid points along one side of a cubic velocity model. Our results with poststack data show that WM produces an image that in some places contains fewer migration artifacts and is about as well resolved as the KM image. For a 2‐D poststack migration example, the computation time of WM is less than one‐third that of KM. Our results with prestack data show that WM images contain fewer migration artifacts and can define the complex structure more accurately. It is also shown that WM can be significantly faster than KM if a slant stack technique is used in the migration. The drawback with WM is that it is sometimes less robust than KM because of its sensitivity to errors in estimating the incidence angles of the reflections.

Can we image complex structures with first‐arrival traveltime?

Geophysics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 564-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sébastien Geoltrain ◽  
Jean Brac
Keyword(s):  
Eikonal Equation ◽  
Geological Structure ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Complex Velocity ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Finite Differencing ◽  
Explicit Reference ◽  
First Arrival ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration

We experienced difficulties when attempting to perform seismic imaging in complex velocity fields using prestack Kirchhoff depth migration in conjunction with traveltimes computed by finite‐differencing the eikonal equation. The problem arose not because of intrinsic limitations of Kirchhoff migration, but rather from the failure of finite‐differencing to compute traveltimes representative of the energetic part of the wavefield. Further analysis showed that the first arrival is most often associated with a marginally energetic event wherever subsequent arrivals exist. The consequence is that energetic seismic events are imaged with a kinematically incorrect operator and turn out mispositioned at depth. We therefore recommend that first‐arrival traveltime fields, such as those computed by finite‐differencing the eikonal equation, be used in Kirchhoff migration only with great care when the velocity field hosts multiple transmitted arrivals; such a situation is typically met where geological structure creates strong and localized velocity heterogeneities, which partition the incident and reflected wavefields into multiple arrivals; in such an instance, imaging cannot be strictly considered a kinematic process, as it must be performed with explicit reference to the relative amplitudes of multiple arrivals.

Efficient 2.5-D true‐amplitude migration

Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 943-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joe A. Dellinger ◽  
Samuel H. Gray ◽  
Gary E. Murphy ◽  
John T. Etgen
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Constant Velocity ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Additional Source ◽  
Standard Methods ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Out Of Plane ◽  
Kirchhoff Method ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration

Kirchhoff depth migration is a widely used algorithm for imaging seismic data in both two and three dimensions. To perform the summation at the heart of the algorithm, standard Kirchhoff migration requires a traveltime map for each source and receiver. True‐amplitude Kirchhoff migration in 2.5-D υ(x, z) media additionally requires maps of amplitudes, out‐of‐plane spreading factors, and takeoff angles; these quantities are necessary for calculating the true‐amplitude weight term in the summation. The increased input/output (I/O) and computational expense of including the true‐amplitude weight term is often not justified by significant improvement in the final muted and stacked image. For this reason, some authors advocate neglecting the weight term in the Kirchhoff summation entirely for most everyday imaging purposes. We demonstrate that for nearly the same expense as ignoring the weight term, a much better solution is possible. We first approximate the true‐amplitude weight term by the weight term for constant‐velocity media; this eliminates the need for additional source and receiver maps. With one small additional approximation, the weight term can then be moved entirely outside the innermost loop of the summation. The resulting Kirchhoff method produces images that are almost as good as for exact true‐amplitude Kirchhoff migration and at almost the same cost as standard methods that do not attempt to preserve amplitudes.

Prestack Kirchhoff depth migration of shallow seismic data

Geophysics ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1241-1247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linus Pasasa ◽  
Friedemann Wenzel ◽  
Ping Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Waste Disposal ◽  
Seismic Data ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Disposal Site ◽  
Model Estimation ◽  
Waste Disposal Site ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Prestack Migration ◽  
Shallow Seismic ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration

Prestack Kirchhoff depth migration is applied successfully to shallow seismic data from a waste disposal site near Arnstadt in Thuringia, Germany. The motivation behind this study was to locate an underground building buried in a waste disposal. The processing sequence of the prestack migration is simplified significantly as compared to standard common (CMP) data processing. It includes only two parts: (1) velocity‐depth‐model estimation and (2) prestack depth migration. In contrast to conventional CMP stacking, prestack migration does not require a separation of reflections and refractions in the shot data. It still provides an appropriate image. Our data example shows that a superior image can be achieved that would contain not just subtle improvements but a qualitative step forward in resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio.

Leading-order seismic imaging using curvelets

Geophysics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (6) ◽  
pp. S231-S248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huub Douma ◽  
Maarten V. de Hoop
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Order Approximation ◽  
Angular Frequency ◽  
Leading Order ◽  
Numerical Examples ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Map Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Depth Migration ◽  
Homogeneous Media ◽  
Spatial Support

Curvelets are plausible candidates for simultaneous compression of seismic data, their images, and the imaging operator itself. We show that with curvelets, the leading-order approximation (in angular frequency, horizontal wavenumber, and migrated location) to common-offset (CO) Kirchhoff depth migration becomes a simple transformation of coordinates of curvelets in the data, combined with amplitude scaling. This transformation is calculated using map migration, which employs the local slopes from the curvelet decomposition of the data. Because the data can be compressed using curvelets, the transformation needs to be calculated for relatively few curvelets only. Numerical examples for homogeneous media show that using the leading-order approximation only provides a good approximation to CO migration for moderate propagation times. As the traveltime increases and rays diverge beyond the spatial support of a curvelet; however, the leading-order approximation is no longer accurate enough. This shows the need for correction beyond leading order, even for homogeneous media.

Fast acquisition aperture correction in prestack depth migration using beamlet decomposition

Geophysics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. S67-S74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Cao ◽  
Ru-Shan Wu
Keyword(s):  
Wave Equation ◽  
Correction Factor ◽  
Computing Time ◽  
Computation Time ◽  
Prestack Depth Migration ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Wavenumber Domain ◽  
Amplitude Correction ◽  
Local Wavenumber ◽  
Local Angle

Wave-equation-based acquisition aperture correction in the local angle domain can improve image amplitude significantly in prestack depth migration. However, its original implementation is inefficient because the wavefield decomposition uses the local slant stack (LSS), which is demanding computationally. We propose a faster method to obtain the image and amplitude correction factor in the local angle domain using beamlet decomposition in the local wavenumber domain. For a given frequency, the image matrix in the local wavenumber domain for all shots can be calculated efficiently. We then transform the shot-summed image matrix from the local wavenumber domain to the local angle domain (LAD). The LAD amplitude correction factor can be obtained with a similar strategy. Having a calculated image and correction factor, one can apply similar acquisition aperture corrections to the original LSS-based method. For the new implementation, we compare the accuracy and efficiency of two beamlet decompositions: Gabor-Daubechies frame (GDF) and local exponential frame (LEF). With both decompositions, our method produces results similar to the original LSS-based method. However, our method can be more than twice as fast as LSS and cost only twice the computation time of traditional one-way wave-equation-based migrations. The results from GDF decomposition are superior to those from LEF decomposition in terms of artifacts, although GDF requires a little more computing time.

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