3D superwide-angle one-way propagator and its application in seismic modeling and imaging

Abstract

Traditional one-way wave-equation based propagators have been widely used in past decades. Comparing to two-way propagators, one-way methods have higher efficiency and lower memory demands. These two features are especially important in solving large-scale 3D problems. However, regular one-way propagators cannot simulate waves that propagate in large angles within 90° because of their inherent wide angle limitation. Traditional one-way can only propagate along the determined direction (e.g., z-direction), so simulation of turning waves is beyond the ability of one-way methods. We develop 3D superwide-angle one-way propagator to overcome angle limitation and to simulate turning waves with superwide-angle propagation angle (>90°) for modeling and imaging complex geological structures. Wavefields propagating along vertical and horizontal directions are combined using typical stacking scheme. A weight function related to the propagation angle is used for combining and updating wavefields in each propagating step. In the implementation, we use graphics processing units (GPU) to accelerate the process. Typical workflow is designed to exploit the advantages of GPU architecture. Numerical examples show that the method achieves higher accuracy in modeling and imaging steep structures than regular one-way propagators. Actually, superwide-angle one-way propagator can be applied based on any one-way method to improve the effects of seismic modeling and imaging.