地震反演成像中的Hessian算子研究

总结了牛顿类地震反演方法中Hessian算子的作用,对其在地震反演成像中的数学物理含义进行了分析.Hessian算子是误差泛函对模型参数的二阶导数,反映了误差泛函对模型变化的二次型特征.分析声波方程下的Hessian算子的格林函数表达形式,发现其表达了整个观测系统和子波频带等因素对地震数据空间到模型空间投影过程的影响.提出了两种分别适用于最小二乘偏移和全波形反演的Hessian算子简化格式.平面波Hessian算子应用于最小二乘偏移能够得到相对保真的成像结果,改善了地震偏移成像的精度.地下偏移距Hessian算子应用于全波形反演能够加快反演迭代的计算效率.最后,对Hessian算子在地震反演成像中的价值进行了讨论和评价.     

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.     

Model-based optimization of source locations for 3D acoustic seismic full-waveform inversion

Besides classical imaging techniques, full-waveform inversion is an increasingly popular method to derive elastic subsurface properties from seismic data. High-resolution velocity models can be obtained, and spatial sampling criteria are less strict than for imaging methods, because the entire information content of the seismic waveforms is used. As high operational costs arise from seismic surveys, the acquirable data volume is often limited by economic criteria. By selecting optimal locations for seismic sources, the information content of the data can be maximized, and the number of sources and thus the acquisition costs can be reduced compared with standard acquisition designs. The computation of such optimized designs for large-size 3D inverse problems at affordable computational cost is challenging. By using a sequential receiver-wise optimization strategy, we substantially reduce the computational requirements of the optimization process. We prove the applicability of this method by means of numerical 3D acoustic examples. Optimized source designs for different receiver patterns are computed for a realistic subsurface model, and the value of the designs is evaluated by comparing checkerboard inversion tests with different acquisition designs. Our examples show that inversion results with higher accuracy can be obtained with the optimized designs, regardless of the number of sources, the number of receivers, or the receiver distribution. Larger benefits of the optimized designs are visible when a sparse receiver geometry is used.     

Preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient method for frequency domain full‐waveform seismic inversion

We present preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient algorithms as alternatives to the Gauss‐Newton method for frequency domain full‐waveform seismic inversion. We designed two preconditioning operators. For the first preconditioner, we introduce the inverse of an approximate sparse Hessian matrix. The approximate Hessian matrix, which is highly sparse, is constructed by judiciously truncating the Gauss‐Newton Hessian matrix based on examining the auto‐correlation and cross‐correlation of the Jacobian matrix. As the second preconditioner, we employ the approximation of the inverse of the Gauss‐Newton Hessian matrix. This preconditioner is constructed by terminating the iteration process of the conjugate gradient least‐squares method, which is used for inverting the Hessian matrix before it converges. In our preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient algorithms, the step‐length along the search direction, which is a crucial factor for the convergence, is carefully chosen to maximize the reduction of the cost function after each iteration. The numerical simulation results show that by including a very limited number of non‐zero elements in the approximate Hessian, the first preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient algorithm is able to yield comparable inversion results to the Gauss‐Newton method while maintaining the efficiency of the un‐preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient method. The only extra cost is the computation of the inverse of the approximate sparse Hessian matrix, which is less expensive than the computation of a forward simulation of one source at one frequency of operation. The second preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient algorithm also significantly saves the computational expense in comparison with the Gauss‐Newton method while maintaining the Gauss‐Newton reconstruction quality. However, this second preconditioned non‐linear conjugate gradient algorithm is more expensive than the first one.     

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.     

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.     

地震反射波反演二阶优化方法及其应用

常规地震数据大都缺乏低频成分与长炮检距信号,经典的全波形反演方法不易获取中、深层弹性参数模型的长波长分量,波动方程反射波形反演作为替代方法近来受到极大关注.然而,现有的反射波形反演方法几乎都采用梯度类的一阶优化算法,收敛性和精度都有待提高.本文在二阶优化理论框架下,推导弹性参数背景与扰动模型的反射波敏感核、泛函梯度以及海森算子,揭示海森矩阵对泛函梯度的去模糊化作用和改善反演的工作机制.推覆体模型合成数据实验表明,相比于常用的共轭梯度法,利用近似海森矩阵的高斯-牛顿法明显提升了反射波形反演的收敛性与宽谱建模能力.在东海实例中,本文方法超越常用的反射走时层析技术,通过改善中、深层偏移速度建模,支撑逆时偏移高分辨率刻画长江坳陷内部复杂的断裂系统,改善了深部基底的成像质量.

     

基于截断牛顿法的VTI介质声波多参数全波形反演

不同类别参数间的相互耦合使多参数地震全波形反演的非线性程度显著增加, 地震波速度与各向异性参数取值数量级的巨大差异也会使反演问题的性态变差.合理使用Hessian逆算子可以减弱这两类问题对反演的影响, 提高多参数反演的精度, 而截断牛顿法是一种可以比较准确地估计 Hessian 逆算子的优化方法.本文采用截断牛顿法在时间域进行了VTI介质的声波双参数同时反演的研究.不同模型的反演试验表明, 在VTI介质声波双参数同时反演中, 截断牛顿法比有限内存 BFGS (Limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno, L-BFGS)法能更准确地估计 Hessian 逆算子, 进而较好地平衡两类不同参数的同时更新, 得到了比较精确的反演结果.     

Seismic envelope inversion: reduction of local minima and noise resistance

Waveform inversion met severe challenge in retrieving long‐wavelength background structure. We have proposed to use envelope inversion to recover the large‐scale component of the model. Using the large‐scale background recovered by envelope inversion as new starting model, we can get much better result than the conventional full waveform inversion. By comparing the configurations of the misfit functional between the envelope inversion and the conventional waveform inversion, we show that envelope inversion can greatly reduce the local minimum problem. The combination of envelope inversion and waveform inversion can deliver more faithful and accurate final result with almost no extra computation cost compared to the conventional full waveform inversion. We also tested the noise resistance ability of envelope inversion to Gaussian noise and seismic interference noise. The results showed that envelope inversion is insensitive to Gaussian noise and, to a certain extent, insensitive to seismic interference noise. This indicates the robustness of this method and its potential use for noisy data.     

Migration velocity analysis and waveform inversion

Least‐squares inversion of seismic reflection waveform data can reconstruct remarkably detailed models of subsurface structure and take into account essentially any physics of seismic wave propagation that can be modelled. However, the waveform inversion objective has many spurious local minima, hence convergence of descent methods (mandatory because of problem size) to useful Earth models requires accurate initial estimates of long‐scale velocity structure. Migration velocity analysis, on the other hand, is capable of correcting substantially erroneous initial estimates of velocity at long scales. Migration velocity analysis is based on prestack depth migration, which is in turn based on linearized acoustic modelling (Born or single‐scattering approximation). Two major variants of prestack depth migration, using binning of surface data and Claerbout's survey‐sinking concept respectively, are in widespread use. Each type of prestack migration produces an image volume depending on redundant parameters and supplies a condition on the image volume, which expresses consistency between data and velocity model and is hence a basis for velocity analysis. The survey‐sinking (depth‐oriented) approach to prestack migration is less subject to kinematic artefacts than is the binning‐based (surface‐oriented) approach. Because kinematic artefacts strongly violate the consistency or semblance conditions, this observation suggests that velocity analysis based on depth‐oriented prestack migration may be more appropriate in kinematically complex areas. Appropriate choice of objective (differential semblance) turns either form of migration velocity analysis into an optimization problem, for which Newton‐like methods exhibit little tendency to stagnate at nonglobal minima. The extended modelling concept links migration velocity analysis to the apparently unrelated waveform inversion approach to estimation of Earth structure: from this point of view, migration velocity analysis is a solution method for the linearized waveform inversion problem. Extended modelling also provides a basis for a nonlinear generalization of migration velocity analysis. Preliminary numerical evidence suggests a new approach to nonlinear waveform inversion, which may combine the global convergence of velocity analysis with the physical fidelity of model‐based data fitting.     

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.     

Non-monotone spectral projected gradient method applied to full waveform inversion

The seismic inversion problem is a highly non‐linear problem that can be reduced to the minimization of the least‐squares criterion between the observed and the modelled data. It has been solved using different classical optimization strategies that require a monotone descent of the objective function. We propose solving the full‐waveform inversion problem using the non‐monotone spectral projected gradient method: a low‐cost and low‐storage optimization technique that maintains the velocity values in a feasible convex region by frequently projecting them on this convex set. The new methodology uses the gradient direction with a particular spectral step length that allows the objective function to increase at some iterations, guarantees convergence to a stationary point starting from any initial iterate, and greatly speeds up the convergence of gradient methods. We combine the new optimization scheme as a solver of the full‐waveform inversion with a multiscale approach and apply it to a modified version of the Marmousi data set. The results of this application show that the proposed method performs better than the classical gradient method by reducing the number of function evaluations and the residual values.     

Improved hybrid iterative optimization method for seismic full waveform inversion

In full waveform inversion (FWI), Hessian information of the misfit function is of vital importance for accelerating the convergence of the inversion; however, it usually is not feasible to directly calculate the Hessian matrix and its inverse. Although the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno (L-BFGS) or Hessian-free inexact Newton (HFN) methods are able to use approximate Hessian information, the information they collect is limited. The two methods can be interlaced because they are able to provide Hessian information for each other; however, the performance of the hybrid iterative method is dependent on the effective switch between the two methods. We have designed a new scheme to realize the dynamic switch between the two methods based on the decrease ratio (DR) of the misfit function (objective function), and we propose a modified hybrid iterative optimization method. In the new scheme, we compare the DR of the two methods for a given computational cost, and choose the method with a faster DR. Using these steps, the modified method always implements the most efficient method. The results of Marmousi and over thrust model testings indicate that the convergence with our modified method is significantly faster than that in the L-BFGS method with no loss of inversion quality. Moreover, our modified outperforms the enriched method by a little speedup of the convergence. It also exhibits better efficiency than the HFN method.     

基于组稀疏约束的微地震震源参数谱投影梯度反演

震源参数反演是微地震监测中的关键技术,常规走时或逆时定位方法可以快速获取震源的空间位置,但是会忽略震源的时间信息.全波形反演(FWI)是一种有效的工具,利用完整的波形信息,通过选用合适的优化算法对微地震事件震源参数进行迭代反演,虽然存在计算量大的问题,但是反演出的结果信息丰富并且精度较高.本文依据微地震震源的特点,提出了基于谱投影梯度组稀疏约束的优化算法来进行震源参数全波形反演,模型测试结果表明: 该算法相比于逆时定位定位精度更高,且可以反演子波波形信息; 对低信噪比微地震记录具有一定的鲁棒性; 对不同时刻的多震源参数反演也能得到较好的结果; 该方法对速度模型具有敏感性,通过微地震数据更新速度模型再进行震源参数反演可以提高反演准确性.

     

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.

     

Full waveform inversion using oriented time‐domain imaging method for vertical transverse isotropic media

Full waveform inversion for reflection events is limited by its linearised update requirements given by a process equivalent to migration. Unless the background velocity model is reasonably accurate, the resulting gradient can have an inaccurate update direction leading the inversion to converge what we refer to as local minima of the objective function. In our approach, we consider mild lateral variation in the model and, thus, use a gradient given by the oriented time‐domain imaging method. Specifically, we apply the oriented time‐domain imaging on the data residual to obtain the geometrical features of the velocity perturbation. After updating the model in the time domain, we convert the perturbation from the time domain to depth using the average velocity. Considering density is constant, we can expand the conventional 1D impedance inversion method to two‐dimensional or three‐dimensional velocity inversion within the process of full waveform inversion. This method is not only capable of inverting for velocity, but it is also capable of retrieving anisotropic parameters relying on linearised representations of the reflection response. To eliminate the crosstalk artifacts between different parameters, we utilise what we consider being an optimal parametrisation for this step. To do so, we extend the prestack time‐domain migration image in incident angle dimension to incorporate angular dependence needed by the multiparameter inversion. For simple models, this approach provides an efficient and stable way to do full waveform inversion or modified seismic inversion and makes the anisotropic inversion more practicable. The proposed method still needs kinematically accurate initial models since it only recovers the high‐wavenumber part as conventional full waveform inversion method does. Results on synthetic data of isotropic and anisotropic cases illustrate the benefits and limitations of this method.     

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.     

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.     

基于可视性分析与能量补偿的金属矿弹性波全波形反演

采用弹性波全波形反演方法精确重建深部金属矿多参数模型,建模过程采用基于地震照明的反演策略.首先给出基于照明理论的观测系统可视性定义,利用可视性分析构建新的目标函数,对反演目标可视性较高的炮检对接收到的地震记录在波场匹配时占有更高的权重,确保了参与反演计算中的地震数据的有效性;其次将给定观测系统对地下介质的弹性波场照明强度作为优化因子,根据地震波在波阻抗界面处的能量分配特点,自适应补偿波场能量分布和优化速度梯度,以提高弹性波全波形反演过程的稳定性和反演结果的精度.理论模型和金属矿模型反演试验结果表明,基于可视性分析和能量补偿的反演策略可以使弹性波全波形反演更快地收敛到目标函数的全局极小值,获得适用于金属矿高分辨率地震偏移成像的多参数模型.     

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).