Dip-moveout error in transversely isotropic media with linear velocity variation in depth

Levin modeled the moveout, within common‐midpoint (CMP) gathers, of reflections from plane‐dipping reflectors beneath homogeneous, transversely isotropic media. For some media, when the axis of symmetry for the anisotropy was vertical, he found departures in stacking velocity from predictions based upon the familiar cosine‐of‐dip correction for isotropic media. Here, I do similar tests, again with transversely isotropic models with vertical axis of symmetry, but now allowing the medium velocity to vary linearly with depth. Results for the same four anisotropic media studied by Levin show behavior of dip‐corrected stacking velocity with reflector dip that, for all velocity gradients considered, differs little from that for the counterpart homogeneous media. As with isotropic media, traveltimes in an inhomogeneous, transversely isotropic medium can be modeled adequately with a homogeneous model with vertical velocity equal to the vertical rms velocity of the inhomogeneous medium. In practice, dip‐moveout (DMO) is based on the assumption that either the medium is homogeneous or its velocity varies with depth, but in both cases isotropy is assumed. It turns out that for only one of the transversely isotropic media considered here—shale‐limestone—would v(z) DMO fail to give an adequate correction within CMP gathers. For the shale‐limestone, fortuitously the constant‐velocity DMO gives a better moveout correction than does the v(z) DMO.

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Migration error in transversely isotropic media with linear velocity variation in depth

Geophysics ◽

10.1190/1.1443360 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 58 (10) ◽

pp. 1454-1467 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Ken L. Larner ◽

Jack K. Cohen

Keyword(s):

Transversely Isotropic ◽

Lateral Position ◽

Inhomogeneous Media ◽

Velocity Variation ◽

Position Errors ◽

Time Migration ◽

Reflection Time ◽

Transversely Isotropic Media ◽

Isotropic Media ◽

Axis Of Symmetry

Given the sensitivity of imaging accuracy to the velocity used in migration, migration founded (as in practice) on the erroneous assumption that a medium is isotropic can be expected to be inaccurate for steep reflectors. Here, we estimate errors in interpreted reflection time and lateral position as a function of reflector dip for transversely isotropic models in which the axis of symmetry is vertical and the medium velocity varies linearly with depth. We limit consideration to media in which ratios of the various elastic moduli are independent of depth. Tests with reflector dips up to 120 degrees on a variety of anisotropic media show errors that are tens of wavelengths for dips beyond 90 degrees when the medium (unrealistically) is homogeneous. For a given anisotropy, the errors are smaller for inhomogeneous media; the larger the velocity gradient, the smaller the errors. For gradients that are representative of the subsurface, lateral‐position errors tend to be minor for dips less than about 60 degrees, growing to two to five wavelengths as dip passes beyond 90 degrees. These errors depend on reflector depth and average velocity to the reflector only through their ratio, i.e., migrated reflection time. Migration error, which is found to be unrelated to the ratio of horizontal to vertical velocity, is such that reflections with later migrated reflection times tend to be more severely overmigrated than are those with earlier times. Over a large range of dips, migration errors that arise when anisotropy is ignored but inhomogeneity is honored tend to be considerably smaller than those encountered when inhomogeneity is ignored in migrating data from isotropic, inhomogeneous media.

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Dip‐moveout error in transversely isotropic media with linear velocity

10.1190/1.1822272 ◽

1992 ◽

Author(s):

Ken Larner ◽

Dave Hale

Keyword(s):

Transversely Isotropic ◽

Linear Velocity ◽

Transversely Isotropic Media ◽

Isotropic Media

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Reverse time migration in tilted transversely isotropic media

Brazilian Journal of Geophysics ◽

10.22564/rbgf.v38i2.2041 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 38 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Razec Cezar Sampaio Pinto da Silva Torres ◽

Leandro Di Bartolo

Keyword(s):

Seismic Anisotropy ◽

Synthetic Data ◽

Transversely Isotropic ◽

Reverse Time ◽

Reverse Time Migration ◽

Computer Clusters ◽

Time Migration ◽

Transversely Isotropic Media ◽

Isotropic Media ◽

Tti Media

ABSTRACT. Reverse time migration (RTM) is one of the most powerful methods used to generate images of the subsurface. The RTM was proposed in the early 1980s, but only recently it has been routinely used in exploratory projects involving complex geology – Brazilian pre-salt, for example. Because the method uses the two-way wave equation, RTM is able to correctly image any kind of geological environment (simple or complex), including those with anisotropy. On the other hand, RTM is computationally expensive and requires the use of computer clusters. This paper proposes to investigate the influence of anisotropy on seismic imaging through the application of RTM for tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media in pre-stack synthetic data. This work presents in detail how to implement RTM for TTI media, addressing the main issues and specific details, e.g., the computational resources required. A couple of simple models results are presented, including the application to a BP TTI 2007 benchmark model.Keywords: finite differences, wave numerical modeling, seismic anisotropy. Migração reversa no tempo em meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinadosRESUMO. A migração reversa no tempo (RTM) é um dos mais poderosos métodos utilizados para gerar imagens da subsuperfície. A RTM foi proposta no início da década de 80, mas apenas recentemente tem sido rotineiramente utilizada em projetos exploratórios envolvendo geologia complexa, em especial no pré-sal brasileiro. Por ser um método que utiliza a equação completa da onda, qualquer configuração do meio geológico pode ser corretamente tratada, em especial na presença de anisotropia. Por outro lado, a RTM é dispendiosa computacionalmente e requer o uso de clusters de computadores por parte da indústria. Este artigo apresenta em detalhes uma implementação da RTM para meios transversalmente isotrópicos inclinados (TTI), abordando as principais dificuldades na sua implementação, além dos recursos computacionais exigidos. O algoritmo desenvolvido é aplicado a casos simples e a um benchmark padrão, conhecido como BP TTI 2007.Palavras-chave: diferenças finitas, modelagem numérica de ondas, anisotropia sísmica.

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