HR: 13:30h
AN: S33A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Addressing the Challenge of Seismic Depth Imaging Beneath a Complex Heterogeneous Medium: an Inverse Scattering Series Response
AU: * Weglein, A B
EM: aweglein@uh.edu
AF: Dept. of Physics, University of Houston, SR Bldg. 1, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5006 United States
AB: Depth imaging beneath an overburden where the medium and/or the boundaries within the medium are rapidly varying is a significant and outstanding problem in current exploration seismology. This problem occurs in plays beneath e.g., salt, basalt and karsted sediments, and is a technical impediment of such a magnitude that deep water E&P strategies and portfolios are being impacted and re-examined. At the heart of the problem is that all current depth imaging methods require an adequate velocity model in order to produce an acceptable depth image. That adequate velocity model is often not achievable for the cases listed above, even with the most expert application of our best velocity analysis methods. The inverse scattering series provides the opportunity to achieve all processing objectives associated with inversion without the need for an adequate velocity, and has been successfully applied to the removal of free and internal multiples on field data, with demonstrated value, especially in complex ill-defined media. This paper will describe the recent development of velocity independent depth imaging concepts and algorithms from the inverse inverse scattering series, and will provide examples, plans and open issues. Reference: Shaw, S. A. and Weglein, A.B. (2004), "A leading order imaging series for prestack data acquired over a laterally invariant acoustic medium", 74th International Meeting of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, Denver.
DE: 1734 Seismology
DE: 3260 Inverse theory
SC: Seismology [S]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly