Angle‐dependent reflectivity by means of prestack migration

Abstract

Most present day seismic migration schemes determine only the zero‐offset reflection coefficient for each grid point (depth point) in the subsurface. In matrix notation, the zero‐offset reflection coefficient is found on the diagonal of a reflectivity matrix operator that transforms the illuminating source‐wave field into a reflected‐wave field. However, angle dependent reflectivity information is contained in the full reflectivity matrix. Our objective is to obtain angle‐dependent reflection coefficients from seismic data by means of prestack migration (multisource, multioffset). After downward extrapolation of source and reflected wave fields to one depth level, the rows of the reflectivity matrix (representing angle‐dependent reflectivity information for each grid point at that depth level) are recovered by deconvolving the reflected wave fields with the related source wave fields. This process is carried out in the space‐frequency domain. In order to preserve the angle‐dependent reflectivity in the imaging we must not only add all frequency contributions but we should extend the imaging principle by adding along lines of constant angle in the wavenumber‐frequency domain. This procedure is carried out for each grid point. The resulting amplitude information provides a rigorous approach to amplitude‐versus‐offset related methods. The new imaging technique has been tested on media with horizontal layers. However, with our shot‐record oriented algorithm it is possible to handle any subsurface geometry. The first tests show excellent results up to high angles, both in the acoustic and in the elastic case. With angle‐dependent reflectivity information it becomes feasible to derive detailed velocity and density information in a subsequent stratigraphic inversion step.