叠前地震数据的平面波深度偏移法

提出了一套基于平面波分解的波动方程叠前地震数据深度偏移方法. 通过对共炮点道集和共偏移距道集地震数据的平面波分解，分别得到适用于单平方根波场外推方程和双平方根波场外推方程的共ps（炮点坐标平面波参数）平面波道集和共ph（偏移距坐标平面波参数）平面波道集. 在对共炮点道集和共偏移距道集地震数据的平面波分解时，不需要进行通常意义下的τ p变换计算. 通过对共ps平面波道集和共ph平面波道集的偏移效果对比，我们认为在速度弱横向变化介质中，两种平面波道集偏移方法的效果相当，但对于速度强横向变化介质，共ps平面波道集偏移方法的效果要优于共ph平面波道集偏移方法. 在计算效率方面，共ps平面波道集偏移方法与共ph平面波道集偏移方法基本相同.     

Wave‐equation migration with dithered plane waves

Wave‐equation based shot‐record migration provides accurate images but is computationally expensive because every shot must be migrated separately. Shot‐encoding migration, such as random shot‐encoding or plane‐wave migration, aims to reduce the computational cost of the imaging process by combining the original data into synthesized common‐source gathers. Random shot‐encoding migration and plane‐wave migration have different and complementary features: the first recovers the full spatial bandwidth of the image but introduces strong artefacts, which are due to the interference between the different shot wavefields; the second provides an image with limited spatial detail but is free of crosstalk noise. We design a hybrid scheme that combines linear and random shot‐encoding in order to limit the drawbacks and merge the advantages of these two techniques. We advocate mixed shot‐encoding migration through dithering of plane waves. This approach reduces the crosstalk noise relative to random shot‐encoding migration and increases the spatial bandwidth relative to conventional plane‐wave migration when the take‐off angle is limited to reduce the duration of the plane‐wave gather. In turn, this decreases the migration cost. Migration with dithered plane waves operates as a hybrid encoding scheme in‐between the end members represented by plane‐wave migration and random shot‐encoding. Migration with dithered plane waves has several advantages: every synthesized common‐source gather images in a larger aperture, the crosstalk noise is limited and higher spatial resolution is achievable compared to shot‐record migration, random shot‐encoding and linear shot‐encoding, respectively. Computational cost is also reduced relative to both random and linear shot‐encoding migration since fewer synthesized common‐source gathers are necessary to obtain a high signal‐to‐noise ratio and high spatial resolution in the final image.     

Increasing resolution of reverse‐time migration using time‐shift gathers

Reverse‐time migration has become an industry standard for imaging in complex geological areas. We present an approach for increasing its imaging resolution by employing time‐shift gathers. The method consists of two steps: (i) migrating seismic data with the extended imaging condition to get time‐shift gathers and (ii) accumulating the information from time‐shift gathers after they are transformed to zero‐lag time‐shift by a post‐stack depth migration on a finer grid. The final image is generated on a grid, which is denser than that of the original image, thus improving the resolution of the migrated images. Our method is based on the observation that non‐zero‐lag time‐shift images recorded on the regular computing grid contain the information of zero‐lag time‐shift image on a denser grid, and such information can be continued to zero‐lag time‐shift and refocused at the correct locations on the denser grid. The extra computational cost of the proposed method amounts to the computational cost of zero‐offset migration and is almost negligible compared with the cost of pre‐stack shot‐record reverse‐time migration. Numerical tests on synthetic models demonstrate that the method can effectively improve reverse‐time migration resolution. It can also be regarded as an approach to improve the efficiency of reverse‐time migration by performing wavefield extrapolation on a coarse grid and by generating the final image on the desired fine grid.     

Investigating a time‐shift extended imaging condition in a Kirchhoff pre‐stack depth migration algorithm

Extracting true amplitude versus angle common image gathers is one of the key objectives in seismic processing and imaging. This is achievable to different degrees using different migration techniques (e.g., Kirchhoff, wavefield extrapolation, and reverse time migration techniques) and is a common tool in exploration, but the costs can vary depending on the selected migration algorithm and the desired accuracy. Here, we investigate the possibility of combining the local‐shift imaging condition, specifically the time‐shift extended imaging condition, for angle gathers with a Kirchhoff migration. The aims are not to replace the more accurate full‐wavefield migration but to offer a cheaper alternative where ray‐based methods are applicable and to use Kirchhoff time‐lag common image gathers to help bridge the gap between the traditional offset common image gathers and reverse time migration angle gathers; finally, given the higher level of summation inside the extended imaging migration, we wish to understand the impact on the amplitude versus angle response. The implementation of the time‐shift imaging condition along with the computational cost is discussed, and results of four different datasets are presented. The four example datasets, two synthetic, one land acquisition, and a marine dataset, have been migrated using a Kirchhoff offset method, a Kirchhoff time‐shift method, and, for comparison, a reverse time migration algorithm. The results show that the time‐shift imaging condition at zero time lag is equivalent to the full offset stack as expected. The output gathers are cleaner and more consistent in the time‐lag‐derived angle gathers, but the conversion from time lag to angle can be considered a post‐processing step. The main difference arises in the amplitude versus offset/angle distribution where the responses are different and dramatically so for the land data. The results from the synthetics and real data show that a Kirchhoff migration with an extended imaging condition is capable of generating subsurface angle gathers. The same disadvantages with a ray‐based approach will apply using the extended imaging condition relative to a wave equation angle gather solution. Nevertheless, using this approach allows one to explore the relationship between the velocity model and focusing of the reflected energy, to use the Radon transformation to remove noise and multiples, and to generate consistent products from a ray‐based migration and a full‐wave equation migration, which can then be interchanged depending on the process under study.     

Enabling affordable omnidirectional subsurface extended image volumes via probing

Image gathers as a function of subsurface offset are an important tool for the inference of rock properties and velocity analysis in areas of complex geology. Traditionally, these gathers are thought of as multidimensional correlations of the source and receiver wavefields. The bottleneck in computing these gathers lies in the fact that one needs to store, compute, and correlate these wavefields for all shots in order to obtain the desired image gathers. Therefore, the image gathers are typically only computed for a limited number of subsurface points and for a limited range of subsurface offsets, which may cause problems in complex geological areas with large geologic dips. We overcome increasing computational and storage costs of extended image volumes by introducing a formulation that avoids explicit storage and removes the customary and expensive loop over shots found in conventional extended imaging. As a result, we end up with a matrix–vector formulation from which different image gathers can be formed and with which amplitude‐versus‐angle and wave‐equation migration velocity analysis can be performed without requiring prior information on the geologic dips. Aside from demonstrating the formation of two‐way extended image gathers for different purposes and at greatly reduced costs, we also present a new approach to conduct automatic wave‐equation‐based migration‐velocity analysis. Instead of focusing in particular offset directions and preselected subsets of subsurface points, our method focuses every subsurface point for all subsurface offset directions using a randomized probing technique. As a consequence, we obtain good velocity models at low cost for complex models without the need to provide information on the geologic dips.     

Preserved‐amplitude angle domain migration by shot‐receiver wavefield continuation

We present preserved‐amplitude downward continuation migration formulas in the aperture angle domain. Our approach is based on shot‐receiver wavefield continuation. Since source and receiver points are close to the image point, a local homogeneous reference velocity can be approximated after redatuming. We analyse this approach in the framework of linearized inversion of Kirchhoff and Born approximations. From our analysis, preserved‐amplitude Kirchhoff and Born inverse formulas can be derived for the 2D case. They involve slant stacks of filtered subsurface offset domain common image gathers followed by the application of the appropriate weighting factors. For the numerical implementation of these formulas, we develop an algorithm based on the true amplitude version of the one‐way paraxial approximation. Finally, we demonstrate the relevance of our approach with a set of applications on synthetic datasets and compare our results with those obtained on the Marmousi model by multi‐arrival ray‐based preserved‐amplitude migration. While results are similar, we observe that our results are less affected by artefacts.     

Image‐warping waveform tomography

Imaging the change in physical parameters in the subsurface requires an estimate of the long wavelength components of the same parameters in order to reconstruct the kinematics of the waves propagating in the subsurface. One can reconstruct the model by matching the recorded data with modeled waveforms extrapolated in a trial model of the medium. Alternatively, assuming a trial model, one can obtain a set of images of the reflectors from a number of seismic experiments and match the locations of the imaged interfaces. Apparent displacements between migrated images contain information about the velocity model and can be used for velocity analysis. A number of methods are available to characterize the displacement between images; in this paper, we compare shot‐domain differential semblance (image difference), penalized local correlations, and image‐warping. We show that the image‐warping vector field is a more reliable tool for estimating displacements between migrated images and leads to a more robust velocity analysis procedure. By using image‐warping, we can redefine the differential semblance optimization problem with an objective function that is more robust against cycle‐skipping than the direct image difference. We propose an approach that has straightforward implementation and reduced computational cost compared with the conventional adjoint‐state method calculations. We also discuss the weakness of migration velocity analysis in the migrated‐shot domain in the case of highly refractive media, when the Born modelling operator is far from being unitary and thus its adjoint (migration) operator poorly approximates the inverse.     

Data-driven retrieval of primary plane-wave responses

Seismic images provided by reverse time migration can be contaminated by artefacts associated with the migration of multiples. Multiples can corrupt seismic images, producing both false positives, that is by focusing energy at unphysical interfaces, and false negatives, that is by destructively interfering with primaries. Multiple prediction/primary synthesis methods are usually designed to operate on point source gathers and can therefore be computationally demanding when large problems are considered. A computationally attractive scheme that operates on plane-wave datasets is derived by adapting a data-driven point source gathers method, based on convolutions and cross-correlations of the reflection response with itself, to include plane-wave concepts. As a result, the presented algorithm allows fully data-driven synthesis of primary reflections associated with plane-wave source responses. Once primary plane-wave responses are estimated, they are used for multiple-free imaging via plane-wave reverse time migration. Numerical tests of increasing complexity demonstrate the potential of the proposed algorithm to produce multiple-free images from only a small number of plane-wave datasets.     

一种基于平面波静态编码的最小二乘逆时偏移方法

平面波偏移是一种面炮偏移方法,相对于常规逐炮偏移,其具有较高的计算效率.然而常规平面波偏移方法成像精度低,且成像时会产生串扰噪音.为此,本文在实现常规平面波偏移算法基础上,引入反演思想实现了基于静态平面波编码的最小二乘偏移理论方法及处理流程,在优化算法基础上对平层模型和复杂砂砾断块模型进行了成像测试并与其他成像策略进行对比.研究结果表明:基于时移编码的平面波最小二乘偏移能有效抑制低频成像噪音和串扰噪音,补偿中深部成像能量,是一种较为有效的保幅成像策略.     

面炮成像、控制照明与AVA道集

基于波场延拓的叠前深度偏移是实现复杂构造地质体成像的最可靠方法,但存在着计算量大、对观测系统适应性差等缺点.面炮偏移是波动方程实现精确叠前成像的另一类方法,具有较高的计算效率,不存在偏移孔径问题,而且可以通过控制照明方法,解决平面波在目标区域的能量补偿问题.本文采用面炮成像技术进行叠前深度偏移,通过对面炮震源下行波场的质量控制和优选射线个数和范围,以达到最佳的成像效果.采用控制照明技术,较大地提高了目标地层的成像精度.与此同时,得到振幅随入射角变化(AVA)道集,有利于叠前振幅解释和储层岩性预测.数据实验表明面炮成像技术是一种快速有效的方法,其成像精度与单平方根算子的共炮点道集偏移和双平方根算子的共中心点道集偏移相当,但在计算速度上要快得多,而且易于并行计算.     

Correlation‐based reflection waveform inversion by one‐way wave equations

Reflection full waveform inversion can update subsurface velocity structure of the deeper part, but tends to get stuck in the local minima associated with the waveform misfit function. These local minima cause cycle skipping if the initial background velocity model is far from the true model. Since conventional reflection full waveform inversion using two‐way wave equation in time domain is computationally expensive and consumes a large amount of memory, we implement a correlation‐based reflection waveform inversion using one‐way wave equations to retrieve the background velocity. In this method, one‐way wave equations are used for the seismic wave forward modelling, migration/de‐migration and the gradient computation of objective function in frequency domain. Compared with the method using two‐way wave equation, the proposed method benefits from the lower computational cost of one‐way wave equations without significant accuracy reduction in the cases without steep dips. It also largely reduces the memory requirement by an order of magnitude than implementation using two‐way wave equation both for two‐ and three‐dimensional situations. Through numerical analysis, we also find that one‐way wave equations can better construct the low wavenumber reflection wavepath without producing high‐amplitude short‐wavelength components near the image points in the reflection full waveform inversion gradient. Synthetic test and real data application show that the proposed method efficiently updates the background velocity model.     

面炮叠前深度偏移与控制照明技术

基于波场延拓的叠前深度偏移是实现复杂构造地质体成像的最可靠方法,但存在着计算量大、对观测系统适应性差等缺点。面炮偏移是波动方程实现精确叠前成像的另一类方法,具有较高的计算效率,不存在偏移孔径问题,而且可以通过控制照明方法,解决平面波在目标区域的能量补偿问题。本文采用面炮成像技术进行叠前深度偏移成像,通过对面炮震源下行波场的质量控制以及射线参数的个数和范围的选取,以达到最佳的成像效果。采用不同深度点上的控制照明技术,较大地提高了目标地层的成像精度。数据实验表明面炮成像技术是一种快速有效的方法,其成像精度与单平方根算子的共炮点道集偏移和双平方根算子的共中心点道集偏移相当,但在计算速度上要快得多,而且易于并行计算。     

High angle prestack depth migration with absorption compensation

The absorption effect of actual subsurface media can weaken wavefield energy, decrease the dominating frequency, and further lead to reduced resolution. In migration, some actions can be taken to compensate for the absorption effect and enhance the resolution. In this paper, we derive a one-way wave equation with an attenuation term based on the timespace domain high angle one-way wave equation. A complicated geological model is then designed and synthetic shot gathers are simulated with acoustic wave equations without and with an absorbing term. The derived one-way wave equation is applied to the migration of the synthetic gathers without and with attenuation compensation for the simulated shot gathers. Three migration profiles are obtained. The first and second profiles are from the shot gathers without and with attenuation using the migration method without compensation, the third one is from the shot gathers with attenuation using the migration method with compensation. The first and third profiles are almost the same, and the second profile is different from the others below the absorptive layers. The amplitudes of the interfaces below the absorptive layers are weak because of their absorption. This method is also applied to field data. It is concluded from the migration examples that the migration method discussed in this paper is feasible.     

Gabor‐frame‐based Gaussian packet migration

We present a Gaussian packet migration method based on Gabor frame decomposition and asymptotic propagation of Gaussian packets. A Gaussian packet has both Gaussian‐shaped time–frequency localization and space–direction localization. Its evolution can be obtained by ray tracing and dynamic ray tracing. In this paper, we first briefly review the concept of Gaussian packets. After discussing how initial parameters affect the shape of a Gaussian packet, we then propose two Gabor‐frame‐based Gaussian packet decomposition methods that can sparsely and accurately represent seismic data. One method is the dreamlet–Gaussian packet method. Dreamlets are physical wavelets defined on an observation plane and can represent seismic data efficiently in the local time–frequency space–wavenumber domain. After decomposition, dreamlet coefficients can be easily converted to the corresponding Gaussian packet coefficients. The other method is the Gabor‐frame Gaussian beam method. In this method, a local slant stack, which is widely used in Gaussian beam migration, is combined with the Gabor frame decomposition to obtain uniform sampled horizontal slowness for each local frequency. Based on these decomposition methods, we derive a poststack depth migration method through the summation of the backpropagated Gaussian packets and the application of the imaging condition. To demonstrate the Gaussian packet evolution and migration/imaging in complex models, we show several numerical examples. We first use the evolution of a single Gaussian packet in media with different complexities to show the accuracy of Gaussian packet propagation. Then we test the point source responses in smoothed varying velocity models to show the accuracy of Gaussian packet summation. Finally, using poststack synthetic data sets of a four‐layer model and the two‐dimensional SEG/EAGE model, we demonstrate the validity and accuracy of the migration method. Compared with the more accurate but more time‐consuming one‐way wave‐equation‐based migration, such as beamlet migration, the Gaussian packet method proposed in this paper can correctly image the major structures of the complex model, especially in subsalt areas, with much higher efficiency. This shows the application potential of Gaussian packet migration in complicated areas.     

Dreamlet source‐receiver survey sinking prestack depth migration

Survey sinking migration downward continues the entire surface observed multi‐shot data to the subsurface step by step recursively. Reflected energy from reflectors at current depth appear at zero time and zero offset in the extrapolated wavefield. The data (seismic records) of t > 0 at this depth are equivalent to the data acquired by a survey system deployed at this depth. This is the reason to name the process ‘survey sinking’. The records of negative time need not to be further propagated since they carry no information to image structures beneath the new survey system. In this paper, we combine survey sinking with dreamlet migration. The dreamlet migration method decomposes the seismic wavefield and one‐way wave propagator by complete time‐space localized bases. The localization on time gives flexibility on time‐varying operations during depth extrapolation. In dreamlet survey sinking migration, it only keeps the data for imaging the structures beneath the sunk survey system and gets rid of the data already used to image structures above it. The deeper the depth is, the shorter is the valid time records of the remaining data and less computation is needed for one depth step continuation. For data decomposition, in addition to time axis, dreamlet survey sinking also decomposes the data for source and receiver gathers, which is a fully localized decomposition of prestack seismic data. A three‐scatter model is first used to demonstrate the computational feature and principle of this method. Tests on the two‐dimensional SEG/EAGE salt model show that with reduced data sets the proposed method can still obtain good imaging quality on complex geology structures and a strong velocity contrast environment.     

Efficient amplitude encoding least‐squares reverse time migration using cosine basis

Least‐squares reverse time migration provides better imaging result than conventional reverse time migration by reducing the migration artefacts, improving the resolution of the image and balancing the amplitudes of the reflectors. However, it is computationally intensive. To reduce its computational cost, we propose an efficient amplitude encoding least‐squares reverse time migration scheme in the time domain. Although the encoding scheme is effective in increasing the computational efficiency, it also introduces the well‐known crosstalk noise in the gradient that degrades the quality of the imaging result. We analyse the cause of the crosstalk noise using an encoding correlation matrix and then develop two numerical schemes to suppress the crosstalk noise during the inversion process. We test the proposed method with synthetic and field data. Numerical examples show that the proposed scheme can provide better imaging result than reverse time migration, and it also generates images comparable with those from common shot least‐squares reverse time migration but with less computational cost.     

广义地震数据合成及其偏移成像

根据地震波场的线性叠加原理,提出了对地震共炮道集及其震源进行线性叠加的一般方案——广义地震数据合成的方法.利用这个方法,可以根据不同的地质情况和要求得到各种不同的人工合成地震数据道集和震源,如平面波数据道集和震源、局部平面波（束）数据道集和震源以及面向目标的人工合成地震数据道集和震源.对于人工合成地震数据道集的偏移成像可应用单平方根方程实现.不同的合成地震数据道集具有不同偏移成像特性：平面波数据道集具有很高的计算效率,局部平面波数据道集具有很好的方向性,面向目标的合成地震数据道集具有很好的面向目标特性.     

Anisotropy signature in reverse‐time migration extended images

Reverse‐time migration can accurately image complex geologic structures in anisotropic media. Extended images at selected locations in the Earth, i.e., at common‐image‐point gathers, carry rich information to characterize the angle‐dependent illumination and to provide measurements for migration velocity analysis. However, characterizing the anisotropy influence on such extended images is a challenge. Extended common‐image‐point gathers are cheap to evaluate since they sample the image at sparse locations indicated by the presence of strong reflectors. Such gathers are also sensitive to velocity error that manifests itself through moveout as a function of space and time lags. Furthermore, inaccurate anisotropy leaves a distinctive signature in common‐image‐point gathers, which can be used to evaluate anisotropy through techniques similar to the ones used in conventional wavefield tomography. It specifically admits a V‐shaped residual moveout with the slope of the “V” flanks depending on the anisotropic parameter η regardless of the complexity of the velocity model. It reflects the fourth‐order nature of the anisotropy influence on moveout as it manifests itself in this distinct signature in extended images after handling the velocity properly in the imaging process. Synthetic and real data observations support this assertion.     

Reverse‐time migration from rugged topography using irregular,unstructured mesh

We developed a reverse‐time migration scheme that can image regions with rugged topography without requiring any approximations by adopting an irregular, unstructured‐grid modelling scheme. This grid, which can accurately describe surface topography and interfaces between high‐velocity‐contrast regions, is generated by Delaunay triangulation combined with the centroidal Voronoi tessellation method. The grid sizes vary according to the migration velocities, resulting in significant reduction of the number of discretized nodes compared with the number of nodes in the conventional regular‐grid scheme, particularly in the case wherein high near‐surface velocities exist. Moreover, the time sampling rate can be reduced substantially. The grid method, together with the irregular perfectly matched layer absorbing boundary condition, enables the proposed scheme to image regions of interest using curved artificial boundaries with fewer discretized nodes. We tested the proposed scheme using the 2D SEG Foothill synthetic dataset.     

逆时偏移中用Poynting矢量高效地提取角道集

逆时偏移在提高复杂介质的成像质量方面表现出了优越的性能,但逆时偏移对速度精度的要求比较高.共成像点道集是一种非常重要的叠前深度偏移输出,它除了能为深度偏移处理提供速度信息外,还能够提供振幅和相位等信息,为后续的属性解释提供依据.本文提出一种在逆时偏移成像过程中提取角度域共成像点道集的方法,该方法采用矢量波动方程进行波场传播,并用能流密度矢量(Poynting vector)计算反射角,最后应用互相关成像条件输出角度域共成像点道集.该方法简单易于实现,且几乎不需要额外的计算量和存储量,非常适合于进行逆时偏移速度分析,同时提出的角道集也能用于进行AVA等分析.最后通过模型算例和实际数据检验了方法的有效性和优越性.