scholarly journals Estimation of acoustic macro models using a genetic full-waveform inversion: Applications to the Marmousi model

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. R173-R184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelo Sajeva ◽  
Mattia Aleardi ◽  
Eusebio Stucchi ◽  
Nicola Bienati ◽  
Alfredo Mazzotti

We have developed a stochastic full-waveform inversion that uses genetic algorithms (GA FWI) to estimate acoustic macro models of the P-wave velocity field. Stochastic methods such as GA severely suffer the curse of dimensionality, meaning that they require unaffordable computer resources for inverse problems with many unknowns and expensive forward modeling. To mitigate this issue, we have proposed a two-grid technique with a coarse grid to represent the subsurface for the GA inversion and a finer grid for the forward modeling. We have applied this procedure to invert synthetic acoustic data of the Marmousi model, and we have developed three different tests. The first two tests use a velocity model derived from standard stacking velocity analysis as prior information and differ only for the parameterization of the coarse grid. Their comparison indicates that a smart parameterization of the coarse grid may significantly improve the final result. The third test uses a linearly increasing 1D velocity model as prior information, a layer-stripping procedure, and a large number of model evaluations. All three tests return velocity models that fairly reproduce the long-wavelength structures of the Marmousi. First-break cycle skipping related to the seismograms of the final GA-FWI models is significantly reduced compared with that computed on the models used as prior information. Descent-based FWIs starting from final GA-FWI models yield velocity models with low and comparable model misfits and with an improved reconstruction of the structural details. The quality of the models obtained by GA FWI plus descent-based FWI is benchmarked against the models obtained by descent-based FWI started from a smoothed version of the Marmousi and started directly from the prior information models. Our results are promising and demonstrate the ability of the two-grid GA FWI to yield velocity models suitable as input to descent-based FWI.

Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. R257-R271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Òscar Calderón Agudo ◽  
Nuno Vieira da Silva ◽  
Michael Warner ◽  
Joanna Morgan

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is a technique used to obtain high-quality velocity models of the subsurface. Despite the elastic nature of the earth, the anisotropic acoustic wave equation is typically used to model wave propagation in FWI. In part, this simplification is essential for being efficient when inverting large 3D data sets, but it has the adverse effect of reducing the accuracy and resolution of the recovered P-wave velocity models, as well as a loss in potential to constrain other physical properties, such as the S-wave velocity given that amplitude information in the observed data set is not fully used. Here, we first apply conventional acoustic FWI to acoustic and elastic data generated using the same velocity model to investigate the effect of neglecting the elastic component in field data and we find that it leads to a loss in resolution and accuracy in the recovered velocity model. Then, we develop a method to mitigate elastic effects in acoustic FWI using matching filters that transform elastic data into acoustic data and find that it is applicable to marine and land data sets. Tests show that our approach is successful: The imprint of elastic effects on the recovered P-wave models is mitigated, leading to better-resolved models than those obtained after conventional acoustic FWI. Our method requires a guess of [Formula: see text] and is marginally more computationally demanding than acoustic FWI, but much less so than elastic FWI.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 324-334
Author(s):  
Rongxin Huang ◽  
Zhigang Zhang ◽  
Zedong Wu ◽  
Zhiyuan Wei ◽  
Jiawei Mei ◽  
...  

Seismic imaging using full-wavefield data that includes primary reflections, transmitted waves, and their multiples has been the holy grail for generations of geophysicists. To be able to use the full-wavefield data effectively requires a forward-modeling process to generate full-wavefield data, an inversion scheme to minimize the difference between modeled and recorded data, and, more importantly, an accurate velocity model to correctly propagate and collapse energy of different wave modes. All of these elements have been embedded in the framework of full-waveform inversion (FWI) since it was proposed three decades ago. However, for a long time, the application of FWI did not find its way into the domain of full-wavefield imaging, mostly owing to the lack of data sets with good constraints to ensure the convergence of inversion, the required compute power to handle large data sets and extend the inversion frequency to the bandwidth needed for imaging, and, most significantly, stable FWI algorithms that could work with different data types in different geologic settings. Recently, with the advancement of high-performance computing and progress in FWI algorithms at tackling issues such as cycle skipping and amplitude mismatch, FWI has found success using different data types in a variety of geologic settings, providing some of the most accurate velocity models for generating significantly improved migration images. Here, we take a step further to modify the FWI workflow to output the subsurface image or reflectivity directly, potentially eliminating the need to go through the time-consuming conventional seismic imaging process that involves preprocessing, velocity model building, and migration. Compared with a conventional migration image, the reflectivity image directly output from FWI often provides additional structural information with better illumination and higher signal-to-noise ratio naturally as a result of many iterations of least-squares fitting of the full-wavefield data.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Yuzhu Liu ◽  
Xinquan Huang ◽  
Jizhong Yang ◽  
Xueyi Liu ◽  
Bin Li ◽  
...  

Thin sand-mud-coal interbedded layers and multiples caused by shallow water pose great challenges to conventional 3D multi-channel seismic techniques used to detect the deeply buried reservoirs in the Qiuyue field. In 2017, a dense ocean-bottom seismometer (OBS) acquisition program acquired a four-component dataset in East China Sea. To delineate the deep reservoir structures in the Qiuyue field, we applied a full-waveform inversion (FWI) workflow to this dense four-component OBS dataset. After preprocessing, including receiver geometry correction, moveout correction, component rotation, and energy transformation from 3D to 2D, a preconditioned first-arrival traveltime tomography based on an improved scattering integral algorithm is applied to construct an initial P-wave velocity model. To eliminate the influence of the wavelet estimation process, a convolutional-wavefield-based objective function for the preprocessed hydrophone component is used during acoustic FWI. By inverting the waveforms associated with early arrivals, a relatively high-resolution underground P-wave velocity model is obtained, with updates at 2.0 km and 4.7 km depth. Initial S-wave velocity and density models are then constructed based on their prior relationships to the P-wave velocity, accompanied by a reciprocal source-independent elastic full-waveform inversion to refine both velocity models. Compared to a traditional workflow, guided by stacking velocity analysis or migration velocity analysis, and using only the pressure component or other single-component, the workflow presented in this study represents a good approach for inverting the four-component OBS dataset to characterize sub-seafloor velocity structures.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clàudia Gras ◽  
Valentí Sallarès ◽  
Daniel Dagnino ◽  
C. Estela Jiménez ◽  
Adrià Meléndez ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a high-resolution P-wave velocity model of the sedimentary cover and the uppermost basement until ~ 3 km depth obtained by full-waveform inversion of multichannel seismic data acquired with a 6 km-long streamer in the Alboran Sea (SE Iberia). The inherent non-linearity of the method, especially for short-offset, band-limited seismic data as this one, is circumvented by applying a data processing/modeling sequence consisting of three steps: (1) data re-datuming by back-propagation of the recorded seismograms to the seafloor; (2) joint refraction and reflection travel-time tomography combining the original and the re-datumed shot gathers; and (3) FWI of the original shot gathers using the model obtained by travel-time tomography as initial reference. The final velocity model shows a number of geological structures that cannot be identified in the travel-time tomography models or easily interpreted from seismic reflection images alone. A sharp strong velocity contrast accurately defines the geometry of the top of the basement. Several low-velocity zones that may correspond to the abrupt velocity change across steeply dipping normal faults are observed at the flanks of the basin. A 200–300 m thick, high-velocity layer embedded within lower velocity sediment may correspond to evaporites deposited during the Messinian crisis. The results confirm that the combination of data re-datuming and joint refraction and reflection travel-time inversion provides reference models that are accurate enough to apply full-waveform inversion to relatively short offset streamer data in deep water settings starting at field-data standard low frequency content of 6 Hz.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 1033-1036 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Louboutin ◽  
Philipp Witte ◽  
Michael Lange ◽  
Navjot Kukreja ◽  
Fabio Luporini ◽  
...  

Since its reintroduction by Pratt (1999) , full-waveform inversion (FWI) has gained a lot of attention in geophysical exploration because of its ability to build high-resolution velocity models more or less automatically in areas of complex geology. While there is an extensive and growing literature on the topic, publications focus mostly on technical aspects, making this topic inaccessible for a broader audience due to the lack of simple introductory resources for newcomers to computational geophysics. We will accomplish this by providing a hands-on walkthrough of FWI using Devito ( Lange et al., 2016 ), a system based on domain-specific languages that automatically generates code for time-domain finite differences.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Flórez ◽  
Sergio Alberto Abreo Carrillo ◽  
Ana Beatriz Ramírez Silva

Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) schemes are gradually becoming more common in the oil and gas industry, as a new tool for studying complex geological zones, based on their reliability for estimating velocity models. FWI is a non-linear inversion method that iteratively estimates subsurface characteristics such as seismic velocity, starting from an initial velocity model and the preconditioned data acquired. Blended sources have been used in marine seismic acquisitions to reduce acquisition costs, reducing the number of times that the vessel needs to cross the exploration delineation trajectory. When blended or simultaneous without previous de-blending or separation, stage data are used in the reconstruction of the velocity model with the FWI method, and the computational time is reduced. However, blended data implies overlapping single shot-gathers, producing interference that affects the result of seismic approaches, such as FWI or seismic image migration. In this document, an encoding strategy is developed, which reduces the overlap areas within the blended data to improve the final velocity model with the FWI method.


Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. A33-A37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amsalu Y. Anagaw ◽  
Mauricio D. Sacchi

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) can provide accurate estimates of subsurface model parameters. In spite of its success, the application of FWI in areas with high-velocity contrast remains a challenging problem. Quadratic regularization methods are often adopted to stabilize inverse problems. Unfortunately, edges and sharp discontinuities are not adequately preserved by quadratic regularization techniques. Throughout the iterative FWI method, an edge-preserving filter, however, can gently incorporate sharpness into velocity models. For every point in the velocity model, edge-preserving smoothing assigns the average value of the most uniform window neighboring the point. Edge-preserving smoothing generates piecewise-homogeneous images with enhanced contrast at boundaries. We adopt a simultaneous-source frequency-domain FWI, based on quasi-Newton optimization, in conjunction with an edge-preserving smoothing filter to retrieve high-contrast velocity models. The edge-preserving smoothing filter gradually removes the artifacts created by simultaneous-source encoding. We also have developed a simple model update to prevent disrupting the convergence of the optimization algorithm. Finally, we perform tests to examine our algorithm.


Geophysics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. R55-R61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tariq Alkhalifah ◽  
Yunseok Choi

In full-waveform inversion (FWI), a gradient-based update of the velocity model requires an initial velocity that produces synthetic data that are within a half-cycle, everywhere, from the field data. Such initial velocity models are usually extracted from migration velocity analysis or traveltime tomography, among other means, and are not guaranteed to adhere to the FWI requirements for an initial velocity model. As such, we evaluated an objective function based on the misfit in the instantaneous traveltime between the observed and modeled data. This phase-based attribute of the wavefield, along with its phase unwrapping characteristics, provided a frequency-dependent traveltime function that was easy to use and quantify, especially compared to conventional phase representation. With a strong Laplace damping of the modeled, potentially low-frequency, data along the time axis, this attribute admitted a first-arrival traveltime that could be compared with picked ones from the observed data, such as in wave equation tomography (WET). As we relax the damping on the synthetic and observed data, the objective function measures the misfit in the phase, however unwrapped. It, thus, provided a single objective function for a natural transition from WET to FWI. A Marmousi example demonstrated the effectiveness of the approach.


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-91
Author(s):  
Daniela Teodor ◽  
Cesare Cesare ◽  
Farbod Khosro Anjom ◽  
Romain Brossier ◽  
Valentina Socco Laura ◽  
...  

Elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) is a powerful tool for high-resolution subsurface multi-parameter characterization. However, 3D FWI applied to land data for near-surface applications is particularly challenging, since the seismograms are dominated by highly energetic, dispersive, and complex-scattered surface waves (SWs). In these conditions, a successful deterministic FWI scheme requires an accurate initial model. This study, primarily focused on field data analysis for 3D applications, aims at enhancing the resolution in the imaging of complex shallow targets, by integrating devoted SW analysis techniques with a 3D spectral-element-based elastic FWI. From dispersion curves (DCs), extracted from seismic data recorded over a sharp-interface shallow target, we built different initial S-wave (VS) and P-wave (VP) velocity models (laterally homogeneous and laterally variable), using a specific data-transform. Starting from these models, we carry out 3D FWI tests on synthetic and field data, using a relatively straightforward inversion scheme. The field data processing before FWI consists of bandpass filtering and muting of noisy traces. During FWI, a weighting function is applied to the far-offset traces. We test both 2D and 3D acquisition layouts, with different positions of the sources and variable offsets. The 3D FWI workflow enriched the overall content of the initial models, allowing a reliable reconstruction of the shallow target, especially when using laterally variable initial models. Moreover, a 3D acquisition layout guaranteed a better reconstruction of the target’s shape and lateral extension. In addition, the integration of model-oriented (preliminary monoparametric FWI) and data-oriented (time-windowing) strategies into the main optimization scheme has granted further improvement of the FWI results.


Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. R881-R896 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulang Wu ◽  
George A. McMechan

Most current full-waveform inversion (FWI) algorithms minimize the data residuals to estimate a velocity model based on the assumption that the updated model is the sum of a background model and an estimated model perturbation. We have performed reparameterization of the initial velocity model, by the weights in a convolutional neural network (CNN), to automatically capture the salient features in the initial model, as a priori information. The prior information in CNN weights is iteratively updated as regularization to constrain the CNN-domain inversion to refine the features captured in CNN pretraining by reducing the data misfit. Synthetic examples using a 1D increasing velocity function v(z) and a 2D smoothed version of the correct Marmousi2 model as initial models indicate that the performance of the CNN-domain FWI depends on the existence and accuracy of the prior information in the initial velocity model (i.e., whether features whose positions, shapes, and values are present in the correct model are approximately included in the initial model). Forty different sets of randomly initialized CNN weights are used to parameterize and test CNN-domain FWI, using a 2D smoothed Sigsbee model as the initial velocity model. All 40 sets invert for the Sigsbee salt body more accurately (with a smaller standard deviation of the final rms model errors), by CNN-domain FWI, than FWI does. Features that are not represented within the CNN hidden layers in the initial velocity model, and so cannot be recovered by CNN-domain FWI, can be recovered using the final CNN-domain FWI velocity model as the starting model in a subsequent conventional FWI.


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