A parametric level-set approach for seismic full-waveform inversion

<br/>In seismic exploration, the delineation of large bodies with hard exterior contrasts but nearly constant interior properties is a challenge. Examples include salt diapirs, salt slabs, anhydrite or basalt layers. Salt geometries are of particular interest because they often have hydrocarbon reservoirs on their sides or underneath. This...

Multi-objective full waveform inversion in the absence of low frequencies

Least-squares inversion of seismic reflection waveforms can reconstruct remarkably detailed models of the Earth’s subsurface. However, the cycle-skipping associated with the highfrequency waveforms are responsible for spurious local minima in its objective function. Therefore, it is often difficult for descent methods to converge to the true...

Decoupling of elastic parameters with iterative linearized inversion

Three model parameters as a function of position describe wave propagation in an isotropic elastic medium. Ideally, imaging of data for a point scatterer that consists of a perturbation in one of the elastic parameters should only provide a reconstruction of that perturbation, without cross-talk into the other parameters. This is not the case...

A new optimization approach for source-encoding full-waveform inversion

Waveform inversion is the method of choice for determining a highly heterogeneous subsurface structure. However, conventional waveform inversion requires that the wavefield for each source is computed separately. This makes it very expensive for realistic 3D seismic surveys. Source-encoding waveform inversion, in which the sources are modeled...