Elastic model low- to intermediate-wavenumber inversion using reflection traveltime and waveform of multicomponent seismic data

Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. R109-R123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wencai Xu ◽  
Tengfei Wang ◽  
Jiubing Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
Elastic Model ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Reflected Waves ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Model Background ◽  
Mode Decomposition ◽  
Model Components ◽  
Two Stages

Low-, intermediate-, and high-wavenumber components of P- and S-wave velocities jointly influence the elastic wave propagation and scattering in an isotropic medium. By taking advantage of all information in the data, elastic full-waveform inversion (E-FWI) has the potential to recover these model components. However, if the transmitted wave data are insufficient to illuminate the deeper part of the subsurface, we should rely on the solutions using reflection data. To reduce the nonlinearity of waveform inversion, we choose to decouple the effects of the model background and perturbation on the reflected waves within a linearized inversion framework. This resorts to three stages aiming to gradually fit the traveltimes and waveforms of the reflected PP and PS waves based on data or gradient preconditioning through P/S mode decomposition. For the first two stages, once the multicomponent seismograms have been separated into PP and PS reflection recordings, reflection traveltime inversion using an acoustic wave propagator (A-RTI) can successively recover the low-wavenumber components of P- and S-wave velocities. In the last stage, starting from the models having reliable low-wavenumber components, elastic reflection waveform inversion (E-RWI) can easily get out of the local minima and continue to retrieve the increasing wavenumber features sensitive to the waveform and amplitude variations. This is supported by gradient preconditioning through P/S mode decomposition of the extrapolated normal and adjoint wavefields, and alternately updating model background and high-wavenumber components in terms of linearized least-squares inversion. Numerical examples have demonstrated the performance of our E-RWI approach and the validity of the three-stage inversion workflow.

scholarly journals Elastic reflection waveform inversion with variable density

Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (4) ◽  
pp. R553-R567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuanyuan Li ◽  
Qiang Guo ◽  
Zhenchun Li ◽  
Tariq Alkhalifah
Keyword(s):  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
Variable Density ◽  
Background Model ◽  
Reverse Time ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Low Frequencies ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Time Migration ◽  
Background Models

Elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) provides a better description of the subsurface information than those given by the acoustic assumption. However, it suffers from a more serious cycle-skipping problem compared with the latter. Reflection waveform inversion (RWI) is able to build a good background model, which can serve as an initial model for elastic FWI. Because, in RWI, we use the model perturbation to explicitly fit reflections, such perturbations should include density, which mainly affects the dynamics. We applied Born modeling to generate synthetic reflection data using optimized perturbations of the P- and S-wave velocities and density. The inversion for the perturbations of the P- and S-wave velocities and density is similar to elastic least-squares reverse time migration. An incorrect background model will lead to misfits mainly at the far offsets, which can be used to update the background P- and S-wave velocities along the reflection wavepath. We optimize the perturbations and background models in an alternate way. We use two synthetic examples and a field-data case to demonstrate our proposed elastic RWI algorithm. The results indicate that our elastic RWI with variable density is able to build reasonably good background models for elastic FWI with the absence of low frequencies, and it can deal with the variable density, which is required in real cases.

Synthetic vertical seismic profiles for nonnormal incidence plane waves

Geophysics ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Aminzadeh ◽  
J. M. Mendel
Keyword(s):  
Simple Procedure ◽  
Plane Waves ◽  
Space Representation ◽  
Elastic Model ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Seismic Profiles ◽  
Vertical Seismic Profiles ◽  
State Space Representation ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Incidence Plane

Vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) are, by definition, recordings of seismic signals (total upgoing and downgoing seismic wave fields) at different depth points, usually at equally spaced intervals [Formula: see text], i = 1, 2, …, I. In a nonnormal incidence (NNI) elastic model, where each layer is described by thickness, density, and P- and S-wave velocities, the mapping between time and depth needed to generate synthetic VSPs is not usually straightforward. In this paper we develop a relatively simple procedure for generating synthetic vertical and horizontal direction plane wave NNI VSPs. No spatial discretization is necessary. We (1) compute two surface seismograms, one vertical and the other horizontal, exactly as described in Aminzadeh and Mendel (1982); and (2) downward continue the surface seismograms to fixed VSP depth points. This paper demonstrates an algorithm for downward continuation of an elastic wave field using state‐space representation and gives simulations which illustrate both z- and x-direction primaries and complete VSPs for different geologic models and different incident angles.

Prestack waveform inversion based on analytical solution of the viscoelastic wave equation

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. R45-R61
Author(s):  
Yuanqiang Li ◽  
Jingye Li ◽  
Xiaohong Chen ◽  
Jian Zhang ◽  
Xin Bo
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Solution ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Single Interface ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Avo Inversion ◽  
Viscoelastic Wave

Amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) inversion is based on single interface reflectivity equations. It involves some restrictions, such as the small-angle approximation, including only primary reflections, and ignoring attenuation. To address these shortcomings, the analytical solution of the 1D viscoelastic wave equation is used as the forward modeling engine for prestack inversion. This method can conveniently handle the attenuation and generate the full wavefield response of a layered medium. To avoid numerical difficulties in the analytical solution, the compound matrix method is applied to rapidly obtain the analytical solution by loop vectorization. Unlike full-waveform inversion, the proposed prestack waveform inversion (PWI) can be performed in a target-oriented way and can be applied in reservoir study. Assuming that a Q value is known, PWI is applied to synthetic data to estimate elastic parameters including compressional wave (P-wave) and shear wave (S-wave) velocities and density. After validating our method on synthetic data, this method is applied to a reservoir characterization case study. The results indicate that the reflectivity calculated by our approach is more realistic than that computed by using single interface reflectivity equations. Attenuation is an integral effect on seismic reflection; therefore, the sensitivity of seismic reflection to P-and S-wave velocities and density is significantly greater than that to Q, and the seismic records are sensitive to the low-frequency trend of Q. Thus, we can invert for the three elastic parameters by applying the fixed low-frequency trend of Q. In terms of resolution and accuracy of synthetic and real inversion results, our approach performs superiorly compared to AVO inversion.

scholarly journals Pseudoelastic pure P-mode wave equation

Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. T469-T485
Author(s):  
Bingbing Sun ◽  
Tariq Alkhalifah
Keyword(s):  
Wave Equation ◽  
Elastic Wave ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Elastic Wave Equation ◽  
Amplitude Variation With Offset ◽  
S Waves ◽  
Mode Wave ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Simulation Engine

We have developed a pseudoelastic wave equation describing pure pressure waves propagating in elastic media. The pure pressure-mode (P-mode) wave equation uses all of the elastic parameters (such as density and the P- and S-wave velocities). It produces the same amplitude variation with offset (AVO) effects as PP-reflections computed by the conventional elastic wave equation. Because the new wave equation is free of S-waves, it does not require finer grids for simulation. This leads to a significant computational speedup when the ratio of pressure to S-wave velocities is large. We test the performance of our method on a simple synthetic model with high-velocity contrasts. The amplitude admitted by the pseudoelastic pure P-mode wave equation is highly consistent with that associated with the conventional elastic wave equation over a large range of incidence angles. We further verify our method’s robustness and accuracy using a more complex and realistic 2D salt model from the SEG Advanced Modeling Program. The ideal AVO behavior and computational advantage make our wave equation a good candidate as a forward simulation engine for performing elastic full-waveform inversion, especially for marine streamer data sets.

scholarly journals Elastic reflection-based waveform inversion with a nonlinear approach

Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. R309-R321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Guo ◽  
Tariq Alkhalifah
Keyword(s):  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Equivalent Stress ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
P Wave ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Velocity Models ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Full Waveform ◽  
Highly Nonlinear ◽  
Elastic Reflection

Full-waveform inversion (FWI) is a highly nonlinear problem due to the complex reflectivity of the earth, and this nonlinearity only increases under the more expensive elastic assumption. In elastic media, we need a good initial P-wave velocity and even better initial S-wave velocity models with accurate representation of the low model wavenumbers for FWI to converge. However, inverting for the low-wavenumber components of P- and S-wave velocities using reflection waveform inversion (RWI) with an objective to fit the reflection shape, rather than produce reflections, may mitigate the limitations of FWI. Because FWI, performing as a migration operator, is preferred of the high-wavenumber updates along reflectors. We have developed an elastic RWI that inverts for the low-wavenumber and perturbation components of the P- and S-wave velocities. To generate the full elastic reflection wavefields, we derive an equivalent stress source made up by the inverted model perturbations and incident wavefields. We update the perturbation and propagation parts of the velocity models in a nested fashion. Applications on the synthetic isotropic models and field data indicate that our method can efficiently update the low- and high-wavenumber parts of the models.

A strategy for nonlinear elastic inversion of seismic reflection data

Geophysics ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 51 (10) ◽  
pp. 1893-1903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Tarantola
Keyword(s):  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Wave Impedance ◽  
P Wave ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
S Waves ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
P Wave Velocity

The problem of interpretation of seismic reflection data can be posed with sufficient generality using the concepts of inverse theory. In its roughest formulation, the inverse problem consists of obtaining the Earth model for which the predicted data best fit the observed data. If an adequate forward model is used, this best model will give the best images of the Earth’s interior. Three parameters are needed for describing a perfectly elastic, isotropic, Earth: the density ρ(x) and the Lamé parameters λ(x) and μ(x), or the density ρ(x) and the P-wave and S-wave velocities α(x) and β(x). The choice of parameters is not neutral, in the sense that although theoretically equivalent, if they are not adequately chosen the numerical algorithms in the inversion can be inefficient. In the long (spatial) wavelengths of the model, adequate parameters are the P-wave and S-wave velocities, while in the short (spatial) wavelengths, P-wave impedance, S-wave impedance, and density are adequate. The problem of inversion of waveforms is highly nonlinear for the long wavelengths of the velocities, while it is reasonably linear for the short wavelengths of the impedances and density. Furthermore, this parameterization defines a highly hierarchical problem: the long wavelengths of the P-wave velocity and short wavelengths of the P-wave impedance are much more important parameters than their counterparts for S-waves (in terms of interpreting observed amplitudes), and the latter are much more important than the density. This suggests solving the general inverse problem (which must involve all the parameters) by first optimizing for the P-wave velocity and impedance, then optimizing for the S-wave velocity and impedance, and finally optimizing for density. The first part of the problem of obtaining the long wavelengths of the P-wave velocity and the short wavelengths of the P-wave impedance is similar to the problem solved by present industrial practice (for accurate data interpretation through velocity analysis and “prestack migration”). In fact, the method proposed here produces (as a byproduct) a generalization to the elastic case of the equations of “prestack acoustic migration.” Once an adequate model of the long wavelengths of the P-wave velocity and of the short wavelengths of the P-wave impedance has been obtained, the data residuals should essentially contain information on S-waves (essentially P-S and S-P converted waves). Once the corresponding model of S-wave velocity (long wavelengths) and S-wave impedance (short wavelengths) has been obtained, and if the remaining residuals still contain information, an optimization for density should be performed (the short wavelengths of impedances do not give independent information on density and velocity independently). Because the problem is nonlinear, the whole process should be iterated to convergence; however, the information from each parameter should be independent enough for an interesting first solution.

A hierarchical elastic full-waveform inversion scheme based on wavefield separation and the multistep-length approach

Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (3) ◽  
pp. R99-R123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiming Ren ◽  
Yang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
P Wave ◽  
Model Parameters ◽  
Full Waveform Inversion ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Full Waveform ◽  
Wavefield Separation ◽  
P Wave Velocity

Elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) updates model parameters by minimizing the residuals of the P- and S-wavefields, resulting in more local minima and serious nonlinearity. In addition, the coupling of different parameters degrades the inversion results. To address these problems, we have developed a hierarchical elastic FWI scheme based on wavefield separation and a multistep-length gradient approach. First, we have derived the gradients expressed by different wave modes; analyzed the crosstalk between various parameters; and evaluated the sensitivity of separated P-wave, separated S-wave, and P- and S-wave misfit functions. Then, a practical four-stage inversion workflow was developed. In the first stage, conventional FWI is used to achieve rough estimates of the P- and S-wave velocities. In the second stage, we only invert the P-wave velocity applying the separated P-wavefields when strong S-wave energy is involved, or we merely update the S-wave velocity by matching the separated S-wavefields for the weak S-wave case. The PP and PS gradient formulas are used in these two cases, respectively. Therefore, the nonlinearity of inversion and the crosstalk between parameters are greatly reduced. In the third stage, the multistep-length gradient scheme is adopted. The density structure can be improved owing to the use of individual step lengths for different parameters. In the fourth stage, we make minor adjustments to the recovered P- and S-wave velocities and density by implementing conventional FWI again. Synthetic examples have determined that our hierarchical FWI scheme with the aforementioned steps obtains more plausible models than the conventional method. Inversion results of each stage and any three stages reveal that wavefield decomposition and the multistep-length approach are helpful to improve the accuracy of velocities and density, respectively, and all the stages of our hierarchical FWI method are necessary to give a good recovery of P- and S-wave velocities and density.

Migration‐based traveltime waveform inversion of 2-D simple structures: A synthetic example

Geophysics ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 845-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
François Clément ◽  
Guy Chavent ◽  
Susana Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Least Squares ◽  
Waveform Inversion ◽  
Domain Of Attraction ◽  
Optimization Methods ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Prestack Migration ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Full Wave ◽  
The Time Domain

Migration‐based traveltime (MBTT) formulation provides algorithms for automatically determining background velocities from full‐waveform surface seismic reflection data using local optimization methods. In particular, it addresses the difficulty of the nonconvexity of the least‐squares data misfit function. The method consists of parameterizing the reflectivity in the time domain through a migration step and providing a multiscale representation for the smooth background velocity. We present an implementation of the MBTT approach for a 2-D finite‐difference (FD) full‐wave acoustic model. Numerical analysis on a 2-D synthetic example shows the ability of the method to find much more reliable estimates of both long and short wavelengths of the velocity than the classical least‐squares approach, even when starting from very poor initial guesses. This enlargement of the domain of attraction for the global minima of the least‐squares misfit has a price: each evaluation of the new objective function requires, besides the usual FD full‐wave forward modeling, an additional full‐wave prestack migration. Hence, the FD implementation of the MBTT approach presented in this paper is expected to provide a useful tool for the inversion of data sets of moderate size.

The relation between seismic P‐ and S‐wave velocity dispersion in saturated rocks

Geophysics ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Mavko ◽  
Diane Jizba
Keyword(s):  
Wave Velocity ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Velocity Dispersion ◽  
Seismic Velocity ◽  
Ultrasonic Velocities ◽  
S Wave ◽  
Local Flow ◽  
Wave Velocities ◽  
Shear Compliance

Seismic velocity dispersionin fluid-saturated rocks appears to be dominated by tow mecahnisms: the large scale mechanism modeled by Biot, and the local flow or squirt mecahnism. The tow mechanisms can be distuinguished by the ratio of P-to S-wave dispersions, or more conbeniently, by the ratio of dynamic bulk to shear compliance dispersions derived from the wave velocities. Our formulation suggests that when local flow denominates, the dispersion of the shear compliance will be approximately 4/15 the dispersion of the compressibility. When the Biot mechanism dominates, the constant of proportionality is much smaller. Our examination of ultrasonic velocities from 40 sandstones and granites shows that most, but not all, of the samples were dominated by local flow dispersion, particularly at effective pressures below 40 MPa.

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