Fast 2-D ray+Born migration/inversion in complex media

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluate the capacity of a fast 2-D ray+Born migration/inversion algorithm to recover the true amplitude of the model parameters in 2-D complex media. The method is based on a quasi‐Newtonian linearized inversion of the scattered wavefield. Asymptotic Green’s functions are computed in a smooth reference model with a dynamic ray tracing based on the wavefront construction method. The model is described by velocity perturbations associated with diffractor points. Both the first traveltime and the strongest arrivals can be inverted. The algorithm is implemented with several numerical approximations such as interpolations and aperture limitation around common midpoints to speed the algorithm. Both theoritical and numerical aspects of the algorithm are assessed with three synthetic and real data examples including the 2-D Marmousi example. Comparison between logs extracted from the exact Marmousi perturbation model and the computed images shows that the amplitude of the velocity perturbations are recovered accurately in the regions of the model where the ray field is single valued. In the presence of caustics, neither the first traveltime nor the most energetic arrival inversion allow for a full recovery of the amplitudes although the latter improves the results. We conclude that all the arrivals associated with multipathing through transmission caustics must be taken into account if the true amplitude of the perturbations is to be found. Only 22 minutes of CPU time is required to migrate the full 2-D Marmousi data set on a Sun SPARC 20 workstation. The amplitude loss induced by the numerical approximations on the first traveltime and the most energetic migrated images are evaluated quantitatively and do not exceed 8% of the energy of the image computed without numerical approximation. Computational evaluation shows that extension to a 3-D ray+Born migration/inversion algorithm is realistic.