Advanced Wave-Equation Migration

Abstract

Wave-equation migration methods can more accurately account for complex wave phenomena than ray-tracing-based Kirchhoff methods that are based on the high-frequency asymptotic approximation of waves. With steadily increasing speed of massively parallel computers, wave-equation migration methods are becoming more and more feasible and attractive for imaging complex 3D structures. We present an overview of several efficient and accurate wave-equation-based migration methods that we have recently developed. The methods are implemented in the frequency-space and frequency-wavenumber domains and hence they are called dualdomain methods. In the methods, we make use of different approximate solutions of the scalar-wave equation in heterogeneous media to recursively downward continue wavefields. The approximations used within each extrapolation interval include the Born, quasi-Born, and Rytov approximations. In one of our dual-domain methods, we use an optimized expansion of the square-root operator in the one-way wave equation to minimize the phase error for a given model. This leads to a globally optimized Fourier finitedifference method that is a hybrid split-step Fourier and finitedifference scheme. Migration examples demonstrate that our dualdomain migration methods provide more accurate images than those obtained using the split-step Fourier scheme. The Bornbased, quasi-Born-based, and Rytov-based methods are suitable for imaging complex structures whose lateral variations are moderate, such as the Marmousi model. For this model, the computational cost of the Born-based method is almost the same as the split-step Fourier scheme, while other methods takes approximately 15-50 per cent more computational time. The globally optimized Fourier finite-difference method significantly improves the accuracy of the split-step Fourier method for imaging structures having strong lateral velocity variations, such as the SEG/EAGE salt model, at an approximately 30 per cent greater computational cost than the split-step Fourier method.