scholarly journals Reverse time migration of 3D vertical seismic profile data

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. S31-S38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Shi ◽  
Yanghua Wang

Reverse time migration (RTM) has shown increasing advantages in handling seismic images of complex subsurface media, but it has not been used widely in 3D seismic data due to the large storage and computation requirements. Our prime objective was to develop an RTM strategy that was applicable to 3D vertical seismic profiling (VSP) data. The strategy consists of two aspects: storage saving and calculation acceleration. First, we determined the use of the random boundary condition (RBC) to save the storage in wavefield simulation. An absorbing boundary such as the perfect matching layer boundary is often used in RTM, but it has a high memory demand for storing the source wavefield. RBC is a nonabsorbing boundary and only stores the source wavefield at the two maximum time steps, then repropagates the source wavefield backwards at every time step, and hence, it significantly reduces the memory requirement. Second, we examined the use of the graphic processing unit (GPU) parallelization technique to accelerate the computation. RBC needs to simulate the source wavefield twice and doubles the computation. Thus, it is very necessary to realize the RTM algorithm by GPU, especially for a 3D VSP data set. GPU and central processing unit (CPU) collaborated parallel implementation can greatly reduce the computation time, where the CPU performs serial code, and the GPU performs parallel code. Because RBC does not need the same huge amount of storage as an absorbing boundary, RTM becomes practically applicable for 3D VSP imaging.

Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. F1-F15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yufeng Wang ◽  
Hui Zhou ◽  
Xuebin Zhao ◽  
Qingchen Zhang ◽  
Poru Zhao ◽  
...  

Reverse time migration (RTM) in attenuating media should take absorption and dispersion effects into consideration. The latest proposed viscoacoustic wave equation with decoupled fractional Laplacians facilitates separate amplitude compensation and phase correction in [Formula: see text]-compensated RTM ([Formula: see text]-RTM). However, intensive computation and enormous storage requirements of [Formula: see text]-RTM prevent it from being extended into practical application, especially for large-scale 2D or 3D cases. The emerging graphics processing unit (GPU) computing technology, built around a scalable array of multithreaded streaming multiprocessors, presents an opportunity for greatly accelerating [Formula: see text]-RTM by appropriately exploiting GPUs architectural characteristics. We have developed the cu[Formula: see text]-RTM, a CUDA-based code package that implements [Formula: see text]-RTM based on a set of stable and efficient strategies, such as streamed CUDA fast Fourier transform, checkpointing-assisted time-reversal reconstruction, and adaptive stabilization. The cu[Formula: see text]-RTM code package can run in a multilevel parallelism fashion, either synchronously or asynchronously, to take advantages of all the CPUs and GPUs available, while maintaining impressively good stability and flexibility. We mainly outline the architecture of the cu[Formula: see text]-RTM code package and some program optimization schemes. The speedup ratio on a single GeForce GTX760 GPU card relative to a single core of Intel Core i5-4460 CPU can reach greater than 80 in a large-scale simulation. The strong scaling property of multi-GPU parallelism is demonstrated by performing [Formula: see text]-RTM on a Marmousi model with one to six GPU(s) involved. Finally, we further verified the feasibility and efficiency of the cu[Formula: see text]-RTM on a field data set.


Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. WB175-WB182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Huang ◽  
Bing Bai ◽  
Haiyong Quan ◽  
Tony Huang ◽  
Sheng Xu ◽  
...  

The availability of wide-azimuth data and the use of reverse time migration (RTM) have dramatically increased the capabilities of imaging complex subsalt geology. With these improvements, the current obstacle for creating accurate subsalt images now lies in the velocity model. One of the challenges is to generate common image gathers that take full advantage of the additional information provided by wide-azimuth data and the additional accuracy provided by RTM for velocity model updating. A solution is to generate 3D angle domain common image gathers from RTM, which are indexed by subsurface reflection angle and subsurface azimuth angle. We apply these 3D angle gathers to subsalt tomography with the result that there were improvements in velocity updating with a wide-azimuth data set in the Gulf of Mexico.


Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. WB27-WB39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zheng-Zheng Zhou ◽  
Michael Howard ◽  
Cheryl Mifflin

Various reverse time migration (RTM) angle gather generation techniques have been developed to address poor subsalt data quality and multiarrival induced problems in gathers from Kirchhoff migration. But these techniques introduce new problems, such as inaccuracies in 2D subsurface angle gathers and edge diffraction artifacts in 3D subsurface angle gathers. The unique rich-azimuth data set acquired over the Shenzi field in the Gulf of Mexico enabled the generally artifact-free generation of 3D subsurface angle gathers. Using this data set, we carried out suprasalt tomography and salt model building steps and then produced 3D angle gathers to update the subsalt velocity. We used tilted transverse isotropy RTM with extended image condition to generate full 3D subsurface offset domain common image gathers, which were subsequently converted to 3D angle gathers. The angle gathers were substacked along the subsurface azimuth axis into azimuth sectors. Residual moveout analysis was carried out, and ray-based tomography was used to update velocities. The updated velocity model resulted in improved imaging of the subsalt section. We also applied residual moveout and selective stacking to 3D angle gathers from the final migration to produce an optimized stack image.


Geophysics ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. S241-S250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Luo ◽  
Qinglin Liu ◽  
Yuchun E. Wang ◽  
Mohammed N. AlFaraj

We illustrate the use of mode-converted transmitted (e.g., PS- or SP-) waves in vertical seismic profiling (VSP) data for imaging areas above receivers where reflected waves cannot illuminate. Three depth-domain imaging techniques — move-out correction, common-depth-point (CDP) mapping, and prestack migration — are described and used for imag-ing the transmitted waves. Moveout correction converts an offset VSP trace into a zero-offset trace. CDP mapping maps each sample on an input trace to the location where the mode conversion occurs. For complex media, prestack migration (e.g., reverse-time migration) is used. By using both synthetic and field VSP data, we demonstrate that images derived from transmissions complement those from reflections. As an important application, we show that transmitted waves can illuminate zones above highly de-viated or horizontal wells, a region not imaged by reflection data. Because all of these benefits are obtained without extra data acquisition cost, we believe transmission imag-ing techniques will become widely adopted by the oil in-dustry.


Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. S249-S259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Zhou ◽  
Wenyi Hu ◽  
Jieyuan Ning

Most existing [Formula: see text]-compensated reverse time migration ([Formula: see text]-RTM) algorithms are based on pseudospectral methods. Because of the global nature of pseudospectral operators, these methods are not ideal for efficient parallelization, implying that they may suffer from high computational cost and inefficient memory usage for large-scale industrial problems. In this work, we reported a novel [Formula: see text]-RTM algorithm — the multistage optimized [Formula: see text]-RTM method. This [Formula: see text]-RTM algorithm uses a finite-difference method to compensate the amplitude and the phase simultaneously by uniquely combining two techniques: (1) a negative [Formula: see text] method for amplitude compensation and (2) a multistage dispersion optimization technique for phase correction. To prevent high-frequency noise from growing exponentially and ruining the imaging results, we apply a finite impulse response low-pass filter using the Kaiser window. The theoretical analyses and numerical experiments demonstrate that this [Formula: see text]-RTM algorithm precisely recovers the decayed amplitude and corrects the distorted phase caused by seismic attenuation effects, and hence produces higher resolution subsurface images with the correct structural depth information. This new method performs best in the frequency range of 10–70 Hz. Compared with pseudospectral [Formula: see text]-RTM methods, this [Formula: see text]-RTM approach offers nearly identical imaging quality. Based on local numerical differential operators, this [Formula: see text]-RTM method is very suitable for parallel computing and graphic processing unit implementation, an important feature for large 3D seismic surveys.


Geophysics ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. S65-S77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hu Jin ◽  
George A. McMechan ◽  
Bao Nguyen

We have developed a new method of extracting angle-domain common-image gathers (ADCIGs) from prestack reverse time migration (RTM) that has minimal intermediate storage requirements. To include multipathing, we applied an imaging condition for prestack RTM that uses multiple excitation image times. Instead of saving the full-source snapshots at all time steps, we picked and saved only a few of the highest amplitude arrivals, and their corresponding excitation times, of the source wavefield at each grid point, and we crosscorrelated with the receiver wavefield. When extracting the ADCIGs from RTM, we calculated the source propagation direction from the gradient of the excitation times. The result was that the source time snapshots do not have to be saved or reconstructed during RTM or while extracting ADCIGs. We calculated the receiver propagation direction from Poynting vectors during the receiver extrapolation at each time step and the reflector normal direction by the phase-gradient method. With a new strategy that uses three direction vectors (the source and receiver propagation directions as well as the reflector normal direction), we provided more reliable ADCIGs that are free of low-wavenumber artifacts than any two of them do separately, when the migration velocity model was near to the correct velocity model. The 2D and 3D synthetic tests demonstrated the successful application of the new algorithms with acceptable accuracy, improved storage efficiency, and without an input/output bottleneck.


Geophysics ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. T167-T174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Kosloff ◽  
Reynam C. Pestana ◽  
Hillel Tal-Ezer

A new scheme for the calculation of spatial derivatives has been developed. The technique is based on recursive derivative operators that are generated by an [Formula: see text] fit in the spectral domain. The use of recursive operators enables us to extend acoustic and elastic wave simulations to shorter wavelengths. The method is applied to the numerical solution of the 2D acoustic wave equation and to the solution of the equations of 2D dynamic elasticity in an isotropic medium. An example of reverse-time migration of a synthetic data set shows that the numerical dispersion can be significantly reduced with respect to schemes that are based on finite differences. The method is tested for the solutions of the equations of dynamic elasticity by comparing numerical and analytic solutions to Lamb’s problem.


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