Secondorder interpolation of traveltimes

To carry out a 3D prestack migration of the Kirchhoff type is still a task of enormous computational effort. Its efficiency can be significantly enhanced by employing a fast traveltime interpolation algorithm. High accuracy can be achieved if secondorder spatial derivatives of traveltimes are included in order to account for the curvature of the wavefront. We suggest a hyperbolic traveltime interpolation scheme that permits the determination of the hyperbolic coefficients directly from traveltimes sampled on a coarse grid, thus reducing the requirements in data storage. This approach is closely related to the paraxial ray approximation and corresponds to an extension of the wellknown     method to arbitrary heterogeneous and complex media in 3D. Application to various velocity models, including a 3D version of the Marmousi model, confirms the superiority of our method over the popular trilinear interpolation. This is especially true for regions with strong curvature of the local wavefront. In contrast to trilinear interpolation, our method also provides the possibility of interpolating source positions, and it is 56 times faster than the calculation of traveltime tables using a fast finitedifference eikonal solver.