Rayleigh-Marchenko redatuming for target-oriented, true-amplitude imaging

Abstract

Marchenko redatuming is a revolutionary technique to estimate Green’s functions from virtual sources in the subsurface using only data measured at the earth’s surface, without having to place either sources or receivers in the subsurface. This goal is achieved by crafting special wavefields (so-called focusing functions) that can focus energy at a chosen point in the subsurface. Despite its great potential, strict requirements on the reflection response such as knowledge and accurate deconvolution of the source wavelet (including absolute scaling factor) and co-location of sources and receivers have so far challenged the application of Marchenko redatuming to real-world scenarios. I combine the coupled Marchenko equations with a one-way version of the Rayleigh integral representation to obtain a new redatuming scheme that handles internal as well as free-surface multiples using dual-sensor, band-limited seismic data (with an unknown source signature) from any acquisition system that presents arbitrarily located sources above a line of regularly sampled receivers—for example, ocean-bottom, source-over-spread streamer, and horizontal borehole seismic data. The redatuming scheme is validated using synthetic and field data, and the retrieved subsurface wavefields are used for improved structural imaging and taken as input for the computation of true-amplitude angle gathers, which can lead to more accurate amplitude-versus-angle interpretation and velocity analysis.