scholarly journals Automatic wave-equation migration velocity analysis by focusing subsurface virtual sources

Geophysics ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 83 (2) ◽  
pp. U1-U8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingbing Sun ◽  
Tariq Alkhalifah

Macro-velocity model building is important for subsequent prestack depth migration and full-waveform inversion. Wave-equation migration velocity analysis uses the band-limited waveform to invert for velocity. Normally, inversion would be implemented by focusing the subsurface offset common-image gathers. We reexamine this concept with a different perspective: In the subsurface offset domain, using extended Born modeling, the recorded data can be considered as invariant with respect to the perturbation of the position of the virtual sources and velocity at the same time. A linear system connecting the perturbation of the position of those virtual sources and velocity is derived and solved subsequently by the conjugate gradient method. In theory, the perturbation of the position of the virtual sources is given by the Rytov approximation. Thus, compared with the Born approximation, it relaxes the dependency on amplitude and makes the proposed method more applicable for real data. We determined the effectiveness of the approach by applying the proposed method on isotropic and anisotropic vertical transverse isotropic synthetic data. A real data set example verifies the robustness of the proposed method.

Geophysics ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 1283-1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biondo Biondi ◽  
William W. Symes

We analyze the kinematic properties of offset‐domain common image gathers (CIGs) and angle‐domain CIGs (ADCIGs) computed by wavefield‐continuation migration. Our results are valid regardless of whether the CIGs were obtained by using the correct migration velocity. They thus can be used as a theoretical basis for developing migration velocity analysis (MVA) methods that exploit the velocity information contained in ADCIGs. We demonstrate that in an ADCIG cube, the image point lies on the normal to the apparent reflector dip that passes through the point where the source ray intersects the receiver ray. The image‐point position on the normal depends on the velocity error; when the velocity is correct, the image point coincides with the point where the source ray intersects the receiver ray. Starting from this geometric result, we derive an analytical expression for the expected movements of the image points in ADCIGs as functions of the traveltime perturbation caused by velocity errors. By applying this analytical result and assuming stationary raypaths (i.e., small velocity errors), we then derive two expressions for the residual moveout (RMO) function in ADCIGs. We verify our theoretical results and test the accuracy of the proposed RMO functions by analyzing the migration results of a synthetic data set with a wide range of reflector dips. Our kinematic analysis leads also to the development of a new method for computing ADCIGs when significant geological dips cause strong artifacts in the ADCIGs computed by conventional methods. The proposed method is based on the computation of offset‐domain CIGs along the vertical‐offset axis and on the “optimal” combination of these new CIGs with conventional CIGs. We demonstrate the need for and the advantages of the proposed method on a real data set acquired in the North Sea.


Geophysics ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. WA59-WA68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunyue Li ◽  
Biondo Biondi ◽  
Robert Clapp ◽  
Dave Nichols

Anisotropic models are needed for wave simulation and inversion where a complex geologic environment exists. We extended the theory of wave equation migration velocity analysis to build vertical transverse isotropic models. Because of the ambiguity between depth and [Formula: see text] in the acoustic regime, we assumed [Formula: see text] can be accurately obtained from other sources of information, and inverted for the NMO slowness and the anellipticity parameter [Formula: see text]. We combined the differential semblance optimization objective function with the stacking power maximization to evaluate the focusing of the prestack image in the subsurface-offset domain. To regularize the multiparameter inversion, we built a framework to adapt the geologic and the rock physics information to guide the updates in NMO slowness and [Formula: see text]. This regularization step was crucial to stabilize the inversion and to produce geologically meaningful results. We tested the proposed approach on a synthetic data set and a 2D Gulf of Mexico data set starting with a fairly good initial anisotropic model. The inversion results revealed shallow anomalies collocated in NMO velocity and [Formula: see text] and improved the continuity and the resolution of the final stacked images.


Geophysics ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 1213-1224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hervé Chauris ◽  
Mark S. Noble ◽  
Gilles Lambaré ◽  
Pascal Podvin

We demonstrate a method for estimating 2‐D velocity models from synthetic and real seismic reflection data in the framework of migration velocity analysis (MVA). No assumption is required on the reflector geometry or on the unknown background velocity field, provided that the data only contain primary reflections/diffractions. In the prestack depth‐migrated volume, locations where the reflectivity exhibits local coherency are automatically picked without interpretation in two panels: common image gathers (CIGs) and common offset gathers (COGs). They are characterized by both their positions and two slopes. The velocity is estimated by minimizing all slopes picked in the CIGs. We test the applicability of the method on a real data set, showing the possibility of an efficient inversion using (1) the migration of selected CIGs and COGs, (2) automatic picking on prior uncorrelated locally coherent events, (3) efficient computation of the gradient of the cost function via paraxial ray tracing from the picked events to the surface, and (4) a gradient‐type optimization algorithm for convergence.


Geophysics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. WB191-WB207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaxun Tang ◽  
Biondo Biondi

We present a new strategy for efficient wave-equation migration-velocity analysis in complex geological settings. The proposed strategy has two main steps: simulating a new data set using an initial unfocused image and performing wavefield-based tomography using this data set. We demonstrated that the new data set can be synthesized by using generalized Born wavefield modeling for a specific target region where velocities are inaccurate. We also showed that the new data set can be much smaller than the original one because of the target-oriented modeling strategy, but it contains necessary velocity information for successful velocity analysis. These interesting features make this new data set suitable for target-oriented, fast and interactive velocity model-building. We demonstrate the performance of our method on both a synthetic data set and a field data set acquired from the Gulf of Mexico, where we update the subsalt velocity in a target-oriented fashion and obtain a subsalt image with improved continuities, signal-to-noise ratio and flattened angle-domain common-image gathers.


Geophysics ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. S241-S249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiao-Bi Xie ◽  
Hui Yang

We have derived a broadband sensitivity kernel that relates the residual moveout (RMO) in prestack depth migration (PSDM) to velocity perturbations in the migration-velocity model. We have compared the kernel with the RMO directly measured from the migration image. The consistency between the sensitivity kernel and the measured sensitivity map validates the theory and the numerical implementation. Based on this broadband sensitivity kernel, we propose a new tomography method for migration-velocity analysis and updating — specifically, for the shot-record PSDM and shot-index common-image gather. As a result, time-consuming angle-domain analysis is not required. We use a fast one-way propagator and multiple forward scattering and single backscattering approximations to calculate the sensitivity kernel. Using synthetic data sets, we can successfully invert velocity perturbations from the migration RMO. This wave-equation-based method naturally incorporates the wave phenomena and is best teamed with the wave-equation migration method for velocity analysis. In addition, the new method maintains the simplicity of the ray-based velocity analysis method, with the more accurate sensitivity kernels replacing the rays.


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