Joint migration inversion

Joint migration inversion: Features and challenges

Sun, Yimin (Aramco Overseas Company B.V.)
Kim, Young Seo (Saudi Aramco)
Qu, S. (TU Delft ImPhys/Computational Imaging; TU Delft ImPhys/Medical Imaging)
Verschuur, D.J. (TU Delft ImPhys/Computational Imaging)

2020

Joint migration inversion is a recently proposed technology, accommodating velocity model building and seismic migration in one integrated process. Different from the widely accepted full waveform inversion technology, it uses imaging parameters, i.e. velocities and reflectivities of the subsurface, to parameterize its solution space. The unique feature of this new technology is its explicit capability to exploit multiples in its inversion scheme, which are treated as noise by most current technologies. In this paper, we comprehensively evaluate the state-of-the-art joint migration inversion technology from various angles: we first benchmark its performance, on both velocity model building and seismic imaging, against that of the well-accepted workflow comprising full waveform inversion and reverse-time migration using a fully controlled 2D realistic synthetic dataset. Next, we demonstrate its application on a 2D field dataset. Last, we use another 2D synthetic dataset to clearly illustrate the challenges the current joint migration inversion technology is facing. With this paper, we transparently reveal the pros of cons of the current joint migration inversion, and we will also point out the imminent research directions joint migration inversion technology should focus on in the next phase for it to be more widely accepted by the geophysics community.

Imaging
Joint migration inversion
Velocity model building

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:0416a411-584f-47a4-968c-d82af798dc51

https://doi.org/10.1093/jge/gxaa012

1742-2132

Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 17 (3), 525-538

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2020 Yimin Sun, Young Seo Kim, S. Qu, D.J. Verschuur