Velocity model building from seismic reflection data by full‐waveform inversion

Full‐waveform inversion is re‐emerging as a powerful data‐fitting procedure for quantitative seismic imaging of the subsurface from wide‐azimuth seismic data. This method is suitable to build high‐resolution velocity models provided that the targeted area is sampled by both diving waves and reflected waves. However, the conventional formulation of full‐waveform inversion prevents the reconstruction of the small wavenumber components of the velocity model when the subsurface is sampled by reflected waves only. This typically occurs as the depth becomes significant with respect to the length of the receiver array. This study first aims to highlight the limits of the conventional form of full‐waveform inversion when applied to seismic reflection data, through a simple canonical example of seismic imaging and to propose a new inversion workflow that overcomes these limitations. The governing idea is to decompose the subsurface model as a background part, which we seek to update and a singular part that corresponds to some prior knowledge of the reflectivity. Forcing this scale uncoupling in the full‐waveform inversion formalism brings out the transmitted wavepaths that connect the sources and receivers to the reflectors in the sensitivity kernel of the full‐waveform inversion, which is otherwise dominated by the migration impulse responses formed by the correlation of the downgoing direct wavefields coming from the shot and receiver positions. This transmission regime makes full‐waveform inversion amenable to the update of the long‐to‐intermediate wavelengths of the background model from the wide scattering‐angle information. However, we show that this prior knowledge of the reflectivity does not prevent the use of a suitable misfit measurement based on cross‐correlation, to avoid cycle‐skipping issues as well as a suitable inversion domain as the pseudo‐depth domain that allows us to preserve the invariant property of the zero‐offset time. This latter feature is useful to avoid updating the reflectivity information at each non‐linear iteration of the full‐waveform inversion, hence considerably reducing the computational cost of the entire workflow. Prior information of the reflectivity in the full‐waveform inversion formalism, a robust misfit function that prevents cycle‐skipping issues and a suitable inversion domain that preserves the seismic invariant are the three key ingredients that should ensure well‐posedness and computational efficiency of full‐waveform inversion algorithms for seismic reflection data.     

基于精确震源函数的解调包络多尺度全波形反演

本文提出解调包络方法来重构地震记录中缺失的低频信号,同时该方法能够降低全波形反演的非线性程度;提出伴随状态震源函数反演方法来得到精确的震源函数,并推导了梯度计算公式;解调包络方法结合低通滤波技术,实现了从低频到高频的多尺度反演策略,有效缓解了全波形反演的周波跳跃问题.数值算例证明了解调包络、伴随状态震源函数反演方法和低通滤波多尺度反演策略的可行性及优越性.震源函数反演精度测试结果表明:即使观测记录在缺失低频信息的情况下,也能反演得到精确的震源函数.缺失低频测试和抗噪能力测试结果表明:即使地震数据中缺失9Hz以下的低频信号或者信噪比极低的情况下,利用反演得到的精确震源函数进行解调包络多尺度全波形反演,同样可以得到高精度的全波形反演结果.与Hilbert包络全波形反演对比结果表明:解调包络在重构低频和降低伴随震源主频方面具有一定优势.     

基于混叠震源和频率组编码的频率域自适应全波形反演(英文)

全波形反演是一种高精度的地震成像方法,可以对地下介质物性参数模型进行准确的重构。然而在实际应用中,尤其是在三维复杂介质反演中,计算成本太大是该方法的一个重要缺陷。将混叠震源技术引入到频率域全波形反演中可以大幅度地降低计算成本,提高反演效率。但是使用震源编码技术也带来了两个问题:一方面,参与编码的各个震源之间会产生"串扰噪声",导致反演结果中出现假象;另一方面,基于震源编码的频率域全波形反演方法周围噪声较为敏感,使该方法对含噪数据反演质量较差。本文引入一种频率组编码方法来压制"串扰噪声",并基于震源编码技术提出一种频率域自适应全波形反演方法,通过一个与频率相关的自适应选择机制,将常规频率域全波形反演方法和基于震源编码的全波形反演方法联合起来,在保证反演质量的同时也最大程度地提高了反演效率。     

3D acoustic waveform inversion in the Laplace domain using an iterative solver

In this paper we propose a 3D acoustic full waveform inversion algorithm in the Laplace domain. The partial differential equation for the 3D acoustic wave equation in the Laplace domain is reformulated as a linear system of algebraic equations using the finite element method and the resulting linear system is solved by a preconditioned conjugate gradient method. The numerical solutions obtained by our modelling algorithm are verified through a comparison with the corresponding analytical solutions and the appropriate dispersion analysis. In the Laplace‐domain waveform inversion, the logarithm of the Laplace transformed wavefields mainly contains long‐wavelength information about the underlying velocity model. As a result, the algorithm smoothes a small‐scale structure but roughly identifies large‐scale features within a certain depth determined by the range of offsets and Laplace damping constants employed. Our algorithm thus provides a useful complementary process to time‐ or frequency‐domain waveform inversion, which cannot recover a large‐scale structure when low‐frequency signals are weak or absent. The algorithm is demonstrated on a synthetic example: the SEG/EAGE 3D salt‐dome model. The numerical test is limited to a Laplace‐domain synthetic data set for the inversion. In order to verify the usefulness of the inverted velocity model, we perform the 3D reverse time migration. The migration results show that our inversion results can be used as an initial model for the subsequent high‐resolution waveform inversion. Further studies are needed to perform the inversion using time‐domain synthetic data with noise or real data, thereby investigating robustness to noise.     

The use of low frequencies in a full‐waveform inversion and impedance inversion land seismic case study

Velocity model building and impedance inversion generally suffer from a lack of intermediate wavenumber content in seismic data. Intermediate wavenumbers may be retrieved directly from seismic data sets if enough low frequencies are recorded. Over the past years, improvements in acquisition have allowed us to obtain seismic data with a broader frequency spectrum. To illustrate the benefits of broadband acquisition, notably the recording of low frequencies, we discuss the inversion of land seismic data acquired in Inner Mongolia, China. This data set contains frequencies from 1.5–80 Hz. We show that the velocity estimate based on an acoustic full‐waveform inversion approach is superior to one obtained from reflection traveltime inversion because after full‐waveform inversion the background velocity conforms to geology. We also illustrate the added value of low frequencies in an impedance estimate.     

基于弹性波全波形反演的主被动源多分量混采地震数据速度建模

在常规地震采集中,被动源地震波场往往被视为噪声而去除,这就造成了部分有用信息的丢失.在目标区进行主动源和被动源弹性波地震数据的多分量混合采集,并对两种数据进行联合应用,使其在照明和频带上优势互补,能显著提高成像和反演的质量.本文针对两种不同类型的主被动源混采地震数据,分别提出了相应的联合全波形反演方法.首先,针对主动源与瞬态被动源弹性波混采地震数据,为充分利用被动源对深部照明的优势,同时有效压制被动震源点附近的成像异常值,提出了基于动态随机组合的弹性波被动源照明补偿反演策略.然后,针对低频缺失主动源与背景噪声型被动源弹性波混采地震数据,为充分利用被动源波场携带的低频信息,并避免对被动源的定位和子波估计,提出了基于地震干涉与不依赖子波算法的弹性波主被动源串联反演策略.最后,分别将两种方法在Marmousi模型上进行反演测试.结果说明,综合利用主动源和被动源弹性波混采地震数据,不仅能增强深部弹性参数反演效果,还能更好地构建弹性参数模型的宏观结构,并有助于缓解常规弹性波全波形反演的跳周问题.     

Offset‐variable density improves acoustic full‐waveform inversion: a shallow marine case study

We have previously applied three‐dimensional acoustic, anisotropic, full‐waveform inversion to a shallow‐water, wide‐angle, ocean‐bottom‐cable dataset to obtain a high‐resolution velocity model. This velocity model produced an improved match between synthetic and field data, better flattening of common‐image gathers, a closer fit to well logs, and an improvement in the pre‐stack depth‐migrated image. Nevertheless, close examination reveals that there is a systematic mismatch between the observed and predicted data from this full‐waveform inversion model, with the predicted data being consistently delayed in time. We demonstrate that this mismatch cannot be produced by systematic errors in the starting model, by errors in the assumed source wavelet, by incomplete convergence, or by the use of an insufficiently fine finite‐difference mesh. Throughout these tests, the mismatch is remarkably robust with the significant exception that we do not see an analogous mismatch when inverting synthetic acoustic data. We suspect therefore that the mismatch arises because of inadequacies in the physics that are used during inversion. For ocean‐bottom‐cable data in shallow water at low frequency, apparent observed arrival times, in wide‐angle turning‐ray data, result from the characteristics of the detailed interference pattern between primary refractions, surface ghosts, and a large suite of wide‐angle multiple reflected and/or multiple refracted arrivals. In these circumstances, the dynamics of individual arrivals can strongly influence the apparent arrival times of the resultant compound waveforms. In acoustic full‐waveform inversion, we do not normally know the density of the seabed, and we do not properly account for finite shear velocity, finite attenuation, and fine‐scale anisotropy variation, all of which can influence the relative amplitudes of different interfering arrivals, which in their turn influence the apparent kinematics. Here, we demonstrate that the introduction of a non‐physical offset‐variable water density during acoustic full‐waveform inversion of this ocean‐bottom‐cable field dataset can compensate efficiently and heuristically for these inaccuracies. This approach improves the travel‐time match and consequently increases both the accuracy and resolution of the final velocity model that is obtained using purely acoustic full‐waveform inversion at minimal additional cost.     

Reflection multi‐scale envelope inversion

Sufficient low‐frequency information is essential for full‐waveform inversion to get the global optimal solution. Multi‐scale envelope inversion was proposed using a new Fréchet derivative to invert the long‐wavelength component of the model by directly using the low‐frequency components contained in an envelope of seismic data. Although the new method can recover the main structure of the model, the inversion quality of the model bottom still needs to be improved. Reflection waveform inversion reduces the dependence of inversion on low‐frequency and long‐offset data by using travel‐time information in reflected waves. However, when the underground medium contains strong contrast or the initial model is far away from the true model, it is hard to get reliable reference reflectors for the generation of reflected waves. Here, we propose a combination inversion algorithm, i.e., reflection multi‐scale envelope inversion, to overcome the limitations of multi‐scale envelope inversion and reflection waveform inversion. First, wavefield decomposition was introduced into the multi‐scale envelope inversion to improve the inversion quality of the long‐wavelength components of the model. Then, after the initial model had been established to be accurate enough, migration and de‐migration were introduced to achieve multi‐scale reflection waveform inversion. The numerical results of the salt‐layer model and the SEG/EAGE salt model verified the validity of the proposed approach and its potential.     

基于地震数据子集的波形反演思路、方法与应用

地震数据与地下介质物性参数之间的复杂关系,决定了地震全波形反演在理论方法上面临着强烈的非线性难题.地下不同物性参数的不同分量在地震数据上具有不同的表现,勘探的不同阶段对地下介质模型的精度也具有不同的要求,这就决定了在地震全波形反演过程中不必时刻追求地震数据全部信息的匹配,部分信息的匹配就有可能解决现阶段的某些问题,还可以一定程度上规避匹配全部地震信息所遇到的强烈非线性难题.基于这样的考虑,我们提出了利用地震数据子集进行波形反演的思路,给出了统一的反演方法,并通过基于包络数据子集以及反射波数据子集的波形反演的理论模型与实际资料反演试验,证明了所提出的波形反演思路和方法的正确性.     

时间二阶积分波场的全波形反演

通过对波场的时间二阶积分运算以增强地震数据中的低频成分,提出了一种可有效减小对初始速度模型依赖性的地震数据全波形反演方法—时间二阶积分波场的全波形反演方法.根据散射理论中的散射波场传播方程,推导出时间二阶积分散射波场的传播方程,再利用一阶Born近似对时间二阶积分散射波场传播方程进行线性化.在时间二阶积分散射波场传播方程的基础上,利用散射波场反演地下散射源分布,再利用波场模拟的方法构建地下入射波场,然后根据时间二阶积分散射波场线性传播方程中散射波场与入射波场、速度扰动间的线性关系,应用类似偏移成像的公式得到速度扰动的估计,以此建立时间二阶积分波场的全波形迭代反演方法.最后把时间二阶积分波场的全波形反演结果作为常规全波形反演的初始模型可有效地减小地震波场全波形反演对初始模型的依赖性.应用于Marmousi模型的全频带合成数据和缺失4Hz以下频谱成分的缺低频合成数据验证所提出的全波形反演方法的正确性和有效性,数值试验显示缺失4Hz以下频谱成分数据的反演结果与全频带数据的反演结果没有明显差异.     

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.     

Full waveform inversion of SH‐ and Love‐wave data in near‐surface prospecting

We develop a two‐dimensional full waveform inversion approach for the simultaneous determination of S‐wave velocity and density models from SH ‐ and Love‐wave data. We illustrate the advantages of the SH/Love full waveform inversion with a simple synthetic example and demonstrate the method's applicability to a near‐surface dataset, recorded in the village ?achtice in Northwestern Slovakia. Goal of the survey was to map remains of historical building foundations in a highly heterogeneous subsurface. The seismic survey comprises two parallel SH‐profiles with maximum offsets of 24 m and covers a frequency range from 5 Hz to 80 Hz with high signal‐to‐noise ratio well suited for full waveform inversion. Using the Wiechert–Herglotz method, we determined a one‐dimensional gradient velocity model as a starting model for full waveform inversion. The two‐dimensional waveform inversion approach uses the global correlation norm as objective function in combination with a sequential inversion of low‐pass filtered field data. This mitigates the non‐linearity of the multi‐parameter inverse problem. Test computations show that the influence of visco‐elastic effects on the waveform inversion result is rather small. Further tests using a mono‐parameter shear modulus inversion reveal that the inversion of the density model has no significant impact on the final data fit. The final full waveform inversion S‐wave velocity and density models show a prominent low‐velocity weathering layer. Below this layer, the subsurface is highly heterogeneous. Minimum anomaly sizes correspond to approximately half of the dominant Love‐wavelength. The results demonstrate the ability of two‐dimensional SH waveform inversion to image shallow small‐scale soil structure. However, they do not show any evidence of foundation walls.     

Sensitivity analysis and application of time‐lapse full‐waveform inversion: synthetic testing and field data example from the North Sea,Norway

Time‐lapse refraction can provide complementary seismic solutions for monitoring subtle subsurface changes that are challenging for conventional P‐wave reflection methods. The utilization of refraction time lapse has lagged behind in the past partly due to the lack of robust techniques that allow extracting easy‐to‐interpret reservoir information. However, with the recent emergence of the full‐waveform inversion technique as a more standard tool, we find it to be a promising platform for incorporating head waves and diving waves into the time‐lapse framework. Here we investigate the sensitivity of 2D acoustic, time‐domain, full‐waveform inversion for monitoring a shallow, weak velocity change (?30 m/s, or ?1.6%). The sensitivity tests are designed to address questions related to the feasibility and accuracy of full‐waveform inversion results for monitoring the field case of an underground gas blowout that occurred in the North Sea. The blowout caused the gas to migrate both vertically and horizontally into several shallow sand layers. Some of the shallow gas anomalies were not clearly detected by conventional 4D reflection methods (i.e., time shifts and amplitude difference) due to low 4D signal‐to‐noise ratio and weak velocity change. On the other hand, full‐waveform inversion sensitivity analysis showed that it is possible to detect the weak velocity change with the non‐optimal seismic input. Detectability was qualitative with variable degrees of accuracy depending on different inversion parameters. We inverted, the real 2D seismic data from the North Sea with a greater emphasis on refracted and diving waves’ energy (i.e., most of the reflected energy was removed for the shallow zone of interest after removing traces with offset less than 300 m). The full‐waveform inversion results provided more superior detectability compared with the conventional 4D stacked reflection difference method for a weak shallow gas anomaly (320 m deep).     

Acoustic full waveform inversion of synthetic land and marine data in the Laplace domain

Elastic waves, such as Rayleigh and mode‐converted waves, together with amplitude versus offset variations, serve as noise in full waveform inversion using the acoustic approximation. Heavy preprocessing must be applied to remove elastic effects to invert land or marine data using the acoustic inversion method in the time or frequency domains. Full waveform inversion using the elastic wave equation should be one alternative; however, multi‐parameter inversion is expensive and sensitive to the starting velocity model. We implement full acoustic waveform inversion of synthetic land and marine data in the Laplace domain with minimum preprocessing (i.e., muting) to remove elastic effects. The damping in the Laplace transform can be thought of as an automatic time windowing. Numerical examples show that Laplace‐domain acoustic inversion can yield correct smooth velocity models even with the noise originating from elastic waves. This offers the opportunity to develop an accurate smooth starting model for subsequent inversion in the frequency domain.     

Accelerating the T‐matrix approach to seismic full‐waveform inversion by domain decomposition

A seismic variant of the distorted Born iterative inversion method, which is commonly used in electromagnetic and acoustic (medical) imaging, has been recently developed on the basis of the T‐matrix approach of multiple scattering theory. The distorted Born iterative method is consistent with the Gauss–Newton method, but its implementation is different, and there are potentially significant computational advantages of using the T‐matrix approach in this context. It has been shown that the computational cost associated with the updating of the background medium Green functions after each iteration can be reduced via the use of various linearisation or quasi‐linearisation techniques. However, these techniques for reducing the computational cost may not work well in the presence of strong contrasts. To deal with this, we have now developed a domain decomposition method, which allows one to decompose the seismic velocity model into an arbitrary number of heterogeneous domains that can be treated separately and in parallel. The new domain decomposition method is based on the concept of a scattering‐path matrix, which is well known in solid‐state physics. If the seismic model consists of different domains that are well separated (e.g., different reservoirs within a sedimentary basin), then the scattering‐path matrix formulation can be used to derive approximations that are sufficiently accurate but far more speedy and much less memory demanding because they ignore the interaction between different domains. However, we show here that one can also use the scattering‐path matrix formulation to calculate the overall T‐matrix for a large model exactly without any approximations at a computational cost that is significantly smaller than the cost associated with an exact formal matrix inversion solution. This is because we have derived exact analytical results for the special case of two interacting domains and combined them with Strassen's formulas for fast recursive matrix inversion. To illustrate the fact that we have accelerated the T‐matrix approach to full‐waveform inversion by domain decomposition, we perform a series of numerical experiments based on synthetic data associated with a complex salt model and a simpler two‐dimensional model that can be naturally decomposed into separate upper and lower domains. If the domain decomposition method is combined with an additional layer of multi‐scale regularisation (based on spatial smoothing of the sensitivity matrix and the data residual vector along the receiver line) beyond standard sequential frequency inversion, then one apparently can also obtain stable inversion results in the absence of ultra‐low frequencies and reduced computation times.     

基于各向异性全变分约束的多震源弹性波全波形反演

多震源编码技术可以提高全波形反演的计算效率,但同时会引入串扰噪声使反演结果质量降低. 全变分约束可以有效地压制层内噪声并突出模型界面,其与多震源技术的结合,能在大大提高弹性波全波形反演效率的同时提高反演质量. 本文提出了一种高效的动态多震源全波形反演策略,可以在离散串扰噪声的同时保证照明的均匀性. 根据残留串扰噪声的分布特征,构建了与之匹配的基于各向异性全变分约束的弹性波全波形反演方法. 为了减少周期跳跃效应,将基于稀疏约束的低频重构算法应用于弹性波地震记录,给出了利用快速梯度投影算法求解各向异性全变分约束的全波形反演流程. 模型数据测试结果表明本文的方法不仅能有效地抑制多震源方法导致的串扰噪声,同时也能降低观测数据中的噪声对反演结果的影响.     

基于Born波路径的高斯束初至波波形反演

为了提高表层速度反演精度,本文提出了一种新的波形反演方法.该方法只利用初至波波形信息以减少波形反演对初始模型的依赖性,降低反演多解性与稳定性.由于只利用初至波波形信息,所以该方法利用高斯束计算格林函数和正演波场,以减少正演计算量.为了避免庞大核函数的存储,该方法基于Born波路径,利用矩阵分解算法实现方向与步长的累加计算.将此基于Born波路径的初至波波形反演方法应用于理论模型实验,并与声波方程全波形反演和初至波射线走时层析方法相对比,发现该方法的反演效果略低于全波形反演方法,但明显优于传统初至波射线走时层析方法,而计算效率却与射线走时层析相当.同时,相对于全波形反演,本文方法对初始模型的依赖性也有所降低.     

Anisotropic elastic full‐waveform inversion of walkaway vertical seismic profiling data from the Arabian Gulf

Borehole seismic addresses the need for high‐resolution images and elastic parameters of the subsurface. Full‐waveform inversion of vertical seismic profile data is a promising technology with the potential to recover quantitative information about elastic properties of the medium. Full‐waveform inversion has the capability to process the entire wavefield and to address the wave propagation effects contained in the borehole data—multi‐component measurements; anisotropic effects; compressional and shear waves; and transmitted, converted, and reflected waves and multiples. Full‐waveform inversion, therefore, has the potential to provide a more accurate result compared with conventional processing methods. We present a feasibility study with results of the application of high‐frequency (up to 60 Hz) anisotropic elastic full‐waveform inversion to a walkaway vertical seismic profile data from the Arabian Gulf. Full‐waveform inversion has reproduced the majority of the wave events and recovered a geologically plausible layered model with physically meaningful values of the medium.     

Full waveform inversion and the truncated Newton method: quantitative imaging of complex subsurface structures

Full waveform inversion is a powerful tool for quantitative seismic imaging from wide‐azimuth seismic data. The method is based on the minimization of the misfit between observed and simulated data. This amounts to the solution of a large‐scale nonlinear minimization problem. The inverse Hessian operator plays a crucial role in this reconstruction process. Accounting accurately for the effect of this operator within the minimization scheme should correct for illumination deficits, restore the amplitude of the subsurface parameters, and help to remove artefacts generated by energetic multiple reflections. Conventional minimization methods (nonlinear conjugate gradient, quasi‐Newton methods) only roughly approximate the effect of this operator. In this study, we are interested in the truncated Newton minimization method. These methods are based on the computation of the model update through a matrix‐free conjugate gradient solution of the Newton linear system. We present a feasible implementation of this method for the full waveform inversion problem, based on a second‐order adjoint state formulation for the computation of Hessian‐vector products. We compare this method with conventional methods within the context of 2D acoustic frequency full waveform inversion for the reconstruction of P‐wave velocity models. Two test cases are investigated. The first is the synthetic BP 2004 model, representative of the Gulf of Mexico geology with high velocity contrasts associated with the presence of salt structures. The second is a 2D real data‐set from the Valhall oil field in North sea. Although, from a computational cost point of view, the truncated Newton method appears to be more expensive than conventional optimization algorithms, the results emphasize its increased robustness. A better reconstruction of the P‐wave velocity model is provided when energetic multiple reflections make it difficult to interpret the seismic data. A better trade‐off between regularization and resolution is obtained when noise contamination of the data requires one to regularize the solution of the inverse problem.     

Optimized experimental design for seismic full waveform inversion: A computationally efficient method including a flexible implementation of acquisition costs

Optimized experimental design aims at reducing the cost of a seismic survey by identifying the optimal locations and amounts of sources and receivers. While the acquisition design in the context of seismic imaging applies criteria like fold, offset and spatial sampling, different attributes such as the sensitivity kernels are more relevant for seismic full waveform inversion. An ideal measure to quantify the goodness of an acquisition design relies on the eigenvalue spectrum of the approximate Hessian matrix, but this technique is computationally too expensive for practical use. A more affordable goodness measure has been proposed in the past, but we demonstrate that this measure is inappropriate for target‐oriented optimized experimental design. To address those issues, we derived a sequential receiver‐based procedure using a goodness measure based on the determinant of the approximate Hessian matrix. We show with numerical tests that it efficiently provides an optimized design for target‐oriented as well as for extensive full waveform inversion. This design allows a better reconstruction of the subsurface than an evenly spaced acquisition geometry. Furthermore, the optimization algorithm itself can easily be parallelized, therefore making it attractive for applications to large‐scale three‐dimensional surveys. In addition, our algorithm is able to incorporate variable costs, representing any kind of acquisition‐related costs, for every individual source location. The combined optimization with respect to the information content of sources and to the true cost will allow a more comprehensive and realistic survey planning and has a high potential for further applications.