Traveltime-based true-amplitude migration

Abstract

True-amplitude Kirchhoff migration (TAKM) is an important tool in seismic-reflection imaging. In addition to a structural image, it leads to reflectivity maps of the subsurface. TAKM is carried out in terms of a weighted diffraction stack where the weight functions are computed with dynamic ray tracing (DRT) in addition to the diffraction traveltimes. DRT, however, is time-consuming and imposes restrictions on the velocity models, which are not always acceptable. An alternative approach to TAKM is proposed in which the weight functions are directly determined from the diffraction traveltimes. Because other methods exist for the generation of traveltimes, this approach is not limited by the requirements for DRT. Applications to a complex synthetic model and real data demonstrate that the image quality and accuracy of the reconstructed amplitudes are equivalent to those obtained from TAKM with DRT-generated weight functions.