Marchenko imaging: Imaging with primaries, internal multiples, and free-surface multiples

Abstract

Recent work on retrieving the Green’s function with the Marchenko equation shows how these functions for a virtual source in the subsurface can be obtained from reflection data. The response to the virtual source is the Green’s function from the location of the virtual source to the surface. The Green’s function is retrieved using only the reflection response of the medium and an estimate of the first arrival at the surface from the virtual source. Current techniques, however, only include primaries and internal multiples. Therefore, all surface-related multiples must be removed from the reflection response prior to Green’s function retrieval. We have extended the Marchenko equation to retrieve the Green’s function that includes primaries, internal multiples, and free-surface multiples. In other words, we have retrieved the Green’s function in the presence of a free surface. The information needed for the retrieval is the same as the current techniques, with the only difference being that the reflection response now also includes free-surface multiples. The inclusion of these multiples makes it possible to include them in the imaging operator, and it obviates the need for surface-related multiple elimination. This type of imaging with Green’s functions is called Marchenko imaging.