True-amplitude Gaussian-beam migration

Geophysics ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. S11-S23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel H. Gray ◽  
Norman Bleistein
Keyword(s):  
Wave Equation ◽  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Opening Angle ◽  
Amplitude Wave ◽  
Amplitude Variation With Offset ◽  
Imaging Condition ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Beam Depth ◽  
Gaussian Beam Migration

Gaussian-beam depth migration and related beam migration methods can image multiple arrivals, so they provide an accurate, flexible alternative to conventional single-arrival Kirchhoff migration. Also, they are not subject to the steep-dip limitations of many (so-called wave-equation) methods that use a one-way wave equation in depth to downward-continue wavefields. Previous presentations of Gaussian-beam migration have emphasized its kinematic imaging capabilities without addressing its amplitude fidelity. We offer two true-amplitude versions of Gaussian-beam migration. The first version combines aspects of the classic derivation of prestack Gaussian-beam migration with recent results on true-amplitude wave-equation migration, yields an expression involving a crosscorrelation imaging condition. To provide amplitude-versus-angle (AVA) information, true-amplitude wave-equation migration requires postmigration mapping from lateral distance (between image location and source location) to subsurface opening angle. However, Gaussian-beam migration does not require postmigration mapping to provide AVA data. Instead, the amplitudes and directions of the Gaussian beams provide information that the migration can use to produce AVA gathers as part of the migration process. The second version of true-amplitude Gaussian-beam migration is an expression involving a deconvolution imaging condition, yielding amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) information on migrated shot-domain common-image gathers.

Prestack Gaussian‐beam depth migration

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 1240-1250 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Ross Hill
Keyword(s):  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Velocity Structure ◽  
Saddle Points ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Seismic Energy ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Beam Depth ◽  
Gaussian Beam Migration

Kirchhoff migration is the most popular method of three‐dimensional prestack depth migration because of its flexibility and efficiency. Its effectiveness can become limited, however, when complex velocity structure causes multipathing of seismic energy. An alternative is Gaussian beam migration, which is an extension of Kirchhoff migration that overcomes many of the problems caused by multipathing. Unlike first‐arrival and most‐energetic‐arrival methods, which retain only one traveltime, this alternative method retains most arrivals by the superposition of Gaussian beams. This paper presents a prestack Gaussian beam migration method that operates on common‐offset gathers. The method is efficient because the computation of beam superposition isolates summations that do not depend on the seismic data and evaluates these integrals by considering their saddle points. Gaussian beam migration of the two‐dimensional Marmousi test data set demonstrates the method’s effectiveness for structural imaging in a case where there is multipathing of seismic energy.

Azimuth–opening angle domain imaging in 3D Gaussian beam depth migration

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 025013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiexiong Cai ◽  
Wubao Fang ◽  
Huazhong Wang
Keyword(s):  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Opening Angle ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Beam Depth

Prestack Gaussian-beam depth migration in anisotropic media

Geophysics ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. S133-S138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianfei Zhu ◽  
Samuel H. Gray ◽  
Daoliu Wang
Keyword(s):  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Ray Tracing ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Transversely Isotropic ◽  
Anisotropic Media ◽  
Elastic Parameters ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Beam Depth ◽  
Dynamic Ray Tracing

Gaussian-beam depth migration is a useful alternative to Kirchhoff and wave-equation migrations. It overcomes the limitations of Kirchhoff migration in imaging multipathing arrivals, while retaining its efficiency and its capability of imaging steep dips with turning waves. Extension of this migration method to anisotropic media has, however, been hampered by the difficulties in traditional kinematic and dynamic ray-tracing systems in inhomogeneous, anisotropic media. Formulated in terms of elastic parameters, the traditional anisotropic ray-tracing systems aredifficult to implement and inefficient for computation, especially for the dynamic ray-tracing system. They may also result inambiguity in specifying elastic parameters for a given medium.To overcome these difficulties, we have reformulated the ray-tracing systems in terms of phase velocity.These reformulated systems are simple and especially useful for general transversely isotropic and weak orthorhombic media, because the phase velocities for these two types of media can be computed with simple analytic expressions. These two types of media also represent the majority of anisotropy observed in sedimentary rocks. Based on these newly developed ray-tracing systems, we have extended prestack Gaussian-beam depth migration to general transversely isotropic media. Test results with synthetic data show that our anisotropic, prestack Gaussian-beam migration is accurate and efficient. It produces images superior to those generated by anisotropic, prestack Kirchhoff migration.

2D anisotropic multicomponent Gaussian-beam migration under complex surface conditions

Geophysics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 85 (2) ◽  
pp. S89-S102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianguang Han ◽  
Qingtian Lü ◽  
Bingluo Gu ◽  
Jiayong Yan ◽  
Hao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Complex Surface ◽  
Dynamic Features ◽  
Surface Conditions ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Surface Areas ◽  
Local Plane ◽  
Gaussian Beam Migration ◽  
Wave Migration ◽  
Irregular Topography

Elastic-wave migration in anisotropic media is a vital challenge, particularly for areas with irregular topography. Gaussian-beam migration (GBM) is an accurate and flexible depth migration technique, which is adaptable for imaging complex surface areas. It retains the dynamic features of the wavefield and overcomes the multivalued traveltimes and caustic problems of Kirchhoff migration. We have extended the GBM method to work for 2D anisotropic multicomponent migration under complex surface conditions. We use Gaussian beams to calculate the wavefield from irregular topography, and we use two schemes to derive the down-continued recorded wavefields. One is based on the local slant stack as in classic GBM, in which the PP- and PS-wave seismic records within the local region are directly decomposed into local plane-wave components from irregular topography. The other scheme does not perform the local slant stack. The Green’s function is calculated with a Gaussian beam summation emitted from the receiver point at the irregular surface. Using the crosscorrelation imaging condition and combining with the 2D anisotropic ray-tracing algorithm, we develop two 2D anisotropic multicomponent Gaussian-beam prestack depth migration (GB-PSDM) methods, i.e., using the slant stack and nonslant stack, for irregular topography. Numerical tests demonstrate that our anisotropic multicomponent GB-PSDM can accurately image subsurface structures under complex topography conditions.

Kirchhoff modeling, inversion for reflectivity, and subsurface illumination

Geophysics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 1195-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertrand Duquet ◽  
Kurt J. Marfurt ◽  
Joe A. Dellinger
Keyword(s):  
Least Squares ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Computational Cost ◽  
Image Point ◽  
Surface Sampling ◽  
Constrained Least Squares ◽  
Amplitude Variation With Offset ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Least Squares Migration

Because of its computational efficiency, prestack Kirchhoff depth migration is currently one of the most popular algorithms used in 2-D and 3-D subsurface depth imaging. Nevertheless, Kirchhoff algorithms in their typical implementation produce less than ideal results in complex terranes where multipathing from the surface to a given image point may occur, and beneath fast carbonates, salt, or volcanics through which ray‐theoretical energy cannot penetrate to illuminate underlying slower‐velocity sediments. To evaluate the likely effectiveness of a proposed seismic‐acquisition program, we could perform a forward‐modeling study, but this can be expensive. We show how Kirchhoff modeling can be defined as the mathematical transpose of Kirchhoff migration. The resulting Kirchhoff modeling algorithm has the same low computational cost as Kirchhoff migration and, unlike expensive full acoustic or elastic wave‐equation methods, only models the events that Kirchhoff migration can image. Kirchhoff modeling is also a necessary element of constrained least‐squares Kirchhoff migration. We show how including a simple a priori constraint during the inversion (that adjacent common‐offset images should be similar) can greatly improve the resulting image by partially compensating for irregularities in surface sampling (including missing data), as well as for irregularities in ray coverage due to strong lateral variations in velocity and our failure to account for multipathing. By allowing unstacked common‐offset gathers to become interpretable, the additional cost of constrained least‐squares migration may be justifiable for velocity analysis and amplitude‐variation‐with‐offset studies. One useful by‐product of least‐squares migration is an image of the subsurface illumination for each offset. If the data are sufficiently well sampled (so that including the constraint term is not necessary), the illumination can instead be calculated directly and used to balance the result of conventional migration, obtaining most of the advantages of least‐squares migration for only about twice the cost of conventional migration.

Common-shot elastic Gaussian beam depth migration

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jidong Yang* ◽  
Jianping Huang ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Zhenchun Li
Keyword(s):  
Gaussian Beam ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Beam Depth

Multiarrival Kirchhoff beam migration

Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. WB109-WB118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Liu ◽  
Gopal Palacharla
Keyword(s):  
Model Updating ◽  
Plane Waves ◽  
Beam Width ◽  
Velocity Model ◽  
Model Complexity ◽  
Depth Migration ◽  
Kirchhoff Migration ◽  
Optimal Beam ◽  
Local Plane ◽  
Gaussian Beam Migration

Kirchhoff-type prestack depth migration is the method most popular for outputting offset gathers for velocity-model updating because of its flexibility and efficiency. However, conventional implementations of Kirchhoff migration use only single arrivals. This limits its ability to image complex structures such as subsalt areas. We use the beam methodology to develop a multiarrival Kirchhoff beam migration. The theory and algorithm of our beam migration are analogs to Gaussian beam migration, but we focus on attaining kinematic accuracy and implementation efficiency. The input wavefield of every common offset panel is decomposed into local plane waves at beam centers on the acquisition surface by local slant stacking. Each plane wave contributes a potential single-arrival in Kirchhoff migration. In this way, our method is able to handle multiarrivals caused by model complexity and, therefore, to overcome the limitation of conventional single-arrival Kirchhoff migration. The choice of the width of the beam is critical to the implementation of beam migration. We provide a formula for optimal beam width that achieves both accuracy and efficiency when the velocity model is reasonably smooth. The resulting structural imaging in subsalt and other structurally complex areas is of better quality than that from single-arrival Kirchhoff migration.

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