3D least-squares reverse time migration in VTI media based on pseudoacoustic wave equation and multi-GPU parallel acceleration

Abstract

As the high-density seismic acquisition is progressively becoming an essential mode of seismic exploration, developing high-precision imaging methods for 3D datasets has become an urgent industry requirement. Unfortunately, the two-dimensional least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) can hardly deal with the influence of the third dimension because the structure of reflectors is constantly changing in nearly all directions. Furthermore, anisotropy is very common in underground media, which makes the LSRTM based on isotropic assumption fail to locate the reflectors accurately and seriously limits the identification of geological stratification. Considering the above two problems, this paper derives the least-squares reverse time migration in three-dimensional vertical transversely isotropic media (3D-VTI-LSRTM) and develops a workflow which can realize 3D-LSRTM in VTI media based on this theory. Our workflow uses multi-GPU acceleration and heterogeneous CPU/GPU parallelism. Compared with the general parallel CPU workflow or single GPU workflow, it is feasible that the GPU application significantly improves computing efficiency in practical applications. In addition, this paper extends VTI-LSRTM from 2D to 3D, which solves the problem that the 2D algorithm cannot eliminate the lateral direction reflection artifacts. For the self-made 3D-VTI depression model and the 3D-VTI-SEG/EAGE salt model, we use four NVIDIA Tesla k40c graphics cards for testing. The results of the tests are correct and significantly improved compared to the 3D-VTI-RTM method.