3D Forward Modeling for Full Waveform Inversion

Abstract

Finite Difference (FD) modeling has been used to simulate seismic acquisition and to find out whether imaging artifacts are interfering with real images. 3D application of the modeling got accelerated when Reverse Time Migration (RTM) became an industry wide accepted migration algorithm. At the same time the Survey evaluation and design (SED) made use of FD modeling instead of ray-based methods to prove or reevaluate particular shooting geometries for illumination and imaging. RTM imaging evolved from the isotropic to anisotropic and very quickly reached the tilted anisotropic stage. RTM continues to moving forward to orthorhombic to add complexity to the migration to produce more accurate images. In the mean time Full waveform inversion (FWI) has been a major player to update and refine velocity fields which also uses FD modeling techniques to emulate the acquired data at each stage of the iterations. The FWI has to be inline with the latest RTM propagators if one wants to use them consistently in the depth imaging. The example show how the FD modeling is used to closely model data for FWI in the different acquisition environments.