Prestack time migration for anisotropic media

Author(s):  
Tariq Alkhalifah
Geophysics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. S51-S64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiubing Cheng ◽  
Tengfei Wang ◽  
Chenlong Wang ◽  
Jianhua Geng

Conventional prestack migration does not preserve local directional information of the seismic waves at the image points. New attempts such as sectored migration of azimuth-limited or common-offset-vector data only concern source-receiver azimuth and offset on the surface, which can be poor representation of subsurface wavepath direction. Moreover, they could result in inaccurate imaging because they do not account for the energy propagation between azimuths or offset-vectors. In the past decade, local angle-domain seismic imaging has been highly advocated to avoid migration artifacts and to improve velocity estimation in complex media. Considering prestack time migration (PSTM) is still widely used in seismic imaging and seismic data preconditioning for amplitude variations with offset or incident-angle (AVO/AVA) analysis, fracture detection, and reservoir characterization, we present an azimuth-preserved local angle-domain Kirchhoff PSTM approach for such purposes. We apply a seismic imaging condition in 3D local angle domain and use extended superposition of impulse responses retaining subsurface angular attributes, which are evaluated through the incident and scattering phase slowness vectors using classical-diffraction moveout equations in isotropic, vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) and azimuthally anisotropic media. Two-dimensional synthetic examples demonstrate what the migrated results look like in local angle domain. A wide-azimuth synthetic example with horizontal transversely isotropy (HTI) proves the necessity of azimuthal migration for reliable imaging and azimuthal analysis when azimuthal anisotropy exists in the overburden. Real data examples show the advantages of imaging in subsurface angle domain for properly focusing and revealing azimuth- and angle-dependent variations of residual moveout and migrated amplitudes.


Geophysics ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 81 (5) ◽  
pp. S317-S331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianfeng Zhang ◽  
Zhengwei Li ◽  
Linong Liu ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Jincheng Xu

We have improved the so-called deabsorption prestack time migration (PSTM) by introducing a dip-angle domain stationary-phase implementation. Deabsorption PSTM compensates absorption and dispersion via an actual wave propagation path using effective [Formula: see text] parameters that are obtained during migration. However, noises induced by the compensation degrade the resolution gained and deabsorption PSTM requires more computational effort than conventional PSTM. Our stationary-phase implementation improves deabsorption PSTM through the determination of an optimal migration aperture based on an estimate of the Fresnel zone. This significantly attenuates the noises and reduces the computational cost of 3D deabsorption PSTM. We have estimated the 2D Fresnel zone in terms of two dip angles through building a pair of 1D migrated dip-angle gathers using PSTM. Our stationary-phase QPSTM (deabsorption PSTM) was implemented as a two-stage process. First, we used conventional PSTM to obtain the Fresnel zones. Then, we performed deabsorption PSTM with the Fresnel-zone-based optimized migration aperture. We applied stationary-phase QPSTM to a 3D field data. Comparison with synthetic seismogram generated from well log data validates the resolution enhancements.


Geophysics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. WC69-WC79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdieh Dehghannejad ◽  
Alireza Malehmir ◽  
Christopher Juhlin ◽  
Pietari Skyttä

The Kristineberg mining area in the western part of the Skellefte ore district is the largest base metal producer in northern Sweden and currently the subject of extensive geophysical and geologic studies aimed at constructing 3D geologic models. Seismic reflection data form the backbone of the geologic modeling in the study area. A geologic cross section close to the Kristineberg mine was used to generate synthetic seismic data using acoustic and elastic finite-difference algorithms to provide further insight about the nature of reflections and processing challenges when attempting to image the steeply dipping structures within the study area. Synthetic data suggest processing artifacts manifested themselves in the final 2D images as steeply dipping events that could be confused with reflections. Fewer artifacts are observed when the data are processed using prestack time migration. Prestack time migration also was performed on high-resolution seismic data recently collected near the Kristineberg mine and helped to image a high-amplitude, gently dipping reflection occurring stratigraphically above the extension of the deepest Kristineberg deposit. Swath 3D processing was applied to two crossing seismic lines, west of the Kristineberg mine, to provide information on the 3D geometry of an apparently flat-lying reflection observed in both of the profiles. The processing indicated that the reflection dips about 30° to the southwest and is generated at the contact between metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks, the upper part of the latter unit being the most typical stratigraphic level for the massive sulfide deposits in the Skellefte district.


Geophysics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 84 (6) ◽  
pp. S511-S522 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Gao ◽  
Lianjie Huang

Vector elastic reverse time migration (ERTM) produces subsurface elastic images with correct polarities using multicomponent seismic data. However, the decomposition of elastic wavefields into vector P- and S-wavefields is computationally expensive, particularly in heterogeneous and complex anisotropic media. We have developed a computationally efficient vector ERTM method in the hybrid time and frequency domain by combining three existing techniques. Rather than decomposing elastic wavefields into vector qP- and qS-wavefields during time-domain wavefield propagation, we conduct the wavefield decomposition in the frequency domain for several selected frequencies. In general, the number of selected frequencies needed for migration imaging is much smaller than the number of time steps during forward and backward wavefield propagation, leading to greatly reduced computational costs associated with the qP-/qS-wavefield vector separation in complex heterogeneous anisotropic media. We further combine an implicit directional wavefield separation into the vector ERTM to enhance the image quality. The numerical results demonstrate that our method produces high-quality elastic-wave migration images with notably reduced computational costs compared to the conventional vector ERTM method.


Geophysics ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengxin Dong ◽  
George A. McMechan

A three‐dimensional (3-D) prestack reverse‐time migration algorithm for common‐source P‐wave data from anisotropic media is developed and illustrated by application to synthetic data. Both extrapolation of the data and computation of the excitation‐time imaging condition are implemented using a second‐order finite‐ difference solution of the 3-D anisotropic scalar‐wave equation. Poorly focused, distorted images are obtained if data from anisotropic media are migrated using isotropic extrapolation; well focused, clear images are obtained using anisotropic extrapolation. A priori estimation of the 3-D anisotropic velocity distribution is required. Zones of anomalous, directionally dependent reflectivity associated with anisotropic fracture zones are detectable in both the 3-D common‐ source data and the corresponding migrated images.


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