From acoustic to elastic inverse extended Born modeling: a first insight in the marine environment

Elastic least-squares reverse time migration is the state-of-the-art linear imaging technique to retrieve high-resolution quantitative subsurface images. A successful application requires many migration/modeling cycles. To accelerate the convergence rate, various pseudoinverse Born operators have been proposed, providing quantitative results within a single iteration, while having roughly the same computational cost as reverse time migration. However, these are based on the acoustic approximation, leading to possible inaccurate amplitude predictions as well as the ignorance of S-wave effects. To solve this problem, we extend the pseudoinverse Born operator from acoustic to elastic media to account for the elastic amplitudes of PP reflections and provide an estimate of physical density, P- and S-wave impedance models. We restrict the extension to marine environment, with the recording of pressure waves at the receiver positions. Firstly, we replace the acoustic Green's functions by their elastic version, without modifying the structure of the original pseudoinverse Born operator. We then apply a Radon transform to the results of the first step to calculate the angle-dependent response. Finally, we simultaneously invert for the physical parameters using a weighted least-squares method. Through numerical experiments, we first illustrate the consequences of acoustic approximation on elastic data, leading to inaccurate parameter inversion as well as to artificial reflector inclusion. Then we demonstrate that our method can simultaneously invert for elastic parameters in the presence of complex uncorrelated structures, inaccurate background models, and Gaussian noisy data.

Decoupled approximation and separate extrapolation of P- and SV-waves in transversely isotropic media

Characterizing the kinematics of seismic waves in elastic vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media involves four independent parameters. To reduce the complexity, the acoustic approximation for P-waves reduces the number of required parameters to three by setting the vertical S-wave velocity to zero. However, since only the SV-wave phase velocities parallel or perpendicular to the symmetry axis are indirectly set to zero, the acoustic approximation leads to coupled P-wave components and SV-wave artifacts. The new acoustic approximation suggests setting the vertical S-wave velocity as a phase angle-dependent variable so that the SV-wave phase velocity is zero at all phase angles. We find that manipulating this parameter is a valid way for P-wave approximation, but doing so inevitably leads to zero- or non-zero-valued spurious SV-wave components. Thus, we have developed a novel approach to efficiently approximate and thoroughly separate the two wave modes in VTI media. First, the exact P- and SV-wave phase velocity expressions are rewritten by introducing an auxiliary function. After confirming the insensitivity of this function, we construct a new expression for it and obtain simplified P- and SV-wave phase velocity expressions, which are three- and four-parameter, respectively. This approximation process leads to the same reasonable error for both wave modes. Accuracy analysis indicates that for the P-wave, the overall accuracy performance of our approach is comparable to that of some existing three-parameter approximations. We then derive the corresponding P- and SV-wave equations in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media and provide two available solutions, the hybrid finite-difference/pseudo-spectral scheme and the low-rank approach. Numerical examples illustrate the separability and high accuracy of the proposed P- and SV-wave simulation methods in TTI media.

Internal multiple elimination: Can we trust an acoustic approximation?

Correct handling of strong elastic, internal, multiples remains a challenge for seismic imaging. Methods aimed at eliminating them are currently limited by monotonicity violations, a lack of a-priori knowledge about mode conversions, or unavailability of multi-component sources and receivers for not only particle velocities but also the traction vector. Most of these challenges vanish in acoustic media such that Marchenko-equation-based methods are able in theory to remove multiples exactly (within a certain wavenumber-frequency band). In practice, however, when applied to (elastic) field data, mode conversions are unaccounted for. Aiming to support a recently published marine field data study, we build a representative synthetic model. For this setting, we demonstrate that mode conversions can have a substantial impact on the recovered multiple-free reflection response. Nevertheless, the images are significantly improved by acoustic multiple elimination. Moreover, after migration the imprint of elastic effects is considerably weaker and unlikely to alter the seismic interpretation.

Hamiltonian Monte Carlo inversion of seismic reflection data in the acoustic approximation

<p>The Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method (HMC) is gaining popularity in the geophysical community to fully address nonlinear inverse problems and related uncertainty quantification. We present here an application of HMC to invert seismic data in the acoustic approximation in the context of reflection seismology. We address a 2-D problem, in the form of a vertical cross section where both source and receivers are located near the surface of the model. To solve the forward problem we utilise the finite-difference method with PML absorbing boundary conditions. The observed data are represented by a set of shotgathers.</p><p>The crucial aspect for a successful application of the HMC lies in the capability of performing gradient computations in an efficient manner. To this end, we use the adjont state method to compute the gradient of the misfit functional, which has a computational cost of only about twice that of the forward computation, a very efficient strategy. From the collection of samples characterising the posterior distribution obtained with the HMC, we can derive quantities of interest using statistical analysis and assess uncertainties.</p><p>We illustrate an application of this methodology on a synthetic test mimicking the setup encountered in exploration problems.</p>

New acoustic approximation for transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis

Seismic data processing in the elastic anisotropic model is complicated due to multiparameter dependency. Approximations to the P-wave kinematics are necessary for practical purposes. The acoustic approximation for P-waves in a transversely isotropic medium with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) simplifies the description of wave propagation in elastic media, and as a result, it is widely adopted in seismic data processing and analysis. However, finite-difference implementations of that approximation are plagued with S-wave artifacts. Specifically, the resulting wavefield also includes artificial diamond-shaped S-waves resulting in a redundant signal for many applications that require pure P-wave data. To derive a totally S-wave-free acoustic approximation, we have developed a new acoustic approximation for pure P-waves that is totally free of S-wave artifacts in the homogeneous VTI model. To keep the S-wave velocity equal to zero, we formulate the vertical S-wave velocity to be a function of the model parameters, rather than setting it to zero. Then, the corresponding P-wave phase and group velocities for the new acoustic approximation are derived. For this new acoustic approximation, the kinematics is described by a new eikonal equation for pure P-wave propagation, which defines the new vertical slowness for the P-waves. The corresponding perturbation-based approximation for our new eikonal equation is used to compare the new equation with the original acoustic eikonal. The accuracy of our new P-wave acoustic approximation is tested on numerical examples for homogeneous and multilayered VTI models. We find that the accuracy of our new acoustic approximation is as good as the original one for the phase velocity, group velocity, and the kinematic parameters such as vertical slowness, traveltime, and relative geometric spreading. Therefore, the S-wave-free acoustic approximation could be further applied in seismic processing that requires pure P-wave data.

Kirchhoff Approximations for the Forward-Scattering Target Strength of Underwater Objects

Kirchhoff approximations for the forward-scattering target strength of underwater objects are developed by combining Babinet’s principle and the Kirchhoff integral, where theoretical formulations and a numerical implementation are given in detail. The Kirchhoff approximation is found to be a high-frequency physical acoustic approximation. The forward-scattering target strength versus frequency and the spatial angles for spherical objects, prolate spheroids and the Benchmark Target Strength Simulation Submarine (BeTSSi-Sub) model are obtained by the Kirchhoff approximation and compared with results from theory, the deformed cylinder method (DCM) and the boundary element method (BEM). The Kirchhoff approximation shows considerable agreement with the theoretical and numerical approaches in a region of [Formula: see text] from the rigorous forward-scattering direction. The forward-scattered field contour and the corresponding directivity for the BeTSSi-Sub model are also calculated as a demonstration. Mode coupling caused by the simulated target is clearly revealed. The results indicate that the Kirchhoff approximation can predict the forward-scattering target strength of complex underwater objects.

Anisotropic full-waveform inversion of crosshole seismic data: A vertical symmetry axis field data application

Anisotropic waveform tomography (AWT) uses anisotropic traveltime tomography followed by anisotropic full-waveform inversion (FWI). Such an approach is required for FWI in cases in which the geology is likely to exhibit anisotropy. An important anisotropy class is that of transverse isotropy (TI), and the special case of TI media with a vertical symmetry axis (VTI) media is often used to represent elasticity in undeformed sedimentary layering. We have developed an approach for AWT that uses an acoustic approximation to simulate waves in VTI media, and we apply this approach to crosshole data. In our approach, the best-fitting models of seismic velocity and Thomsen VTI anisotropy parameters are initially obtained using anisotropic traveltime tomography, and they are then used as the starting models for VTI FWI within the acoustic approximation. One common problem with the acoustic approach to TI media is the generation of late-arriving (spurious) S-waves as a by-product of the equation system. We used a Laplace-Fourier approach that effectively damps the spurious S-waves to suppress artifacts that might otherwise corrupt the final inversion results. The results of applying AWT to synthetic data illustrate the trade-offs in resolution between the two parameter classes of velocity and anisotropy, and they also verify anisotropic traveltime tomography as a valid method for generating starting models for FWI. The synthetic study further indicates the importance of smoothing the anisotropy parameters before proceeding to FWI inversions of the velocity parameter. The AWT technique is applied to real crosshole field gathers from a sedimentary environment in Western Canada, and the results are compared with the results from a simpler (elliptical) anisotropy model. The transversely isotropic approach yields an FWI image of the vertical velocity that (1) exhibits a superior resolution and (2) better predicts the field data than does the elliptical approach.