Aliasing in wavefield extrapolation prestack migration

Abstract

Aliasing during migration (“operator aliasing”) is widely recognized as a problem for Kirchhoff migration. It occurs when high-frequency reflection data are swept out at steep angles, with the problem being worst for very coarse input-trace spacing. The problem can be solved either by data interpolation to a finer-spaced grid of input traces or, more commonly, by anti-aliasing the migration operator (Gray, 1992; Lumley et al., 1994; Abma et al., 1999; Biondi, 2001, Zhang et al., 2001a). Although there is no general agreement on the best way to perform Kirchhoff migration anti-aliasing for all problems, especially those involving irregular spatial sampling, there is agreement on the underlying principle. That is, the diffraction surface used by the migration to accumulate data into the image at a single point should sample the input traces adequately (Figure 1). For two-dimensional (2D) poststack migration, “adequately” means that the diffraction curve must sample adjacent traces with a time delay no greater than one-half period at any frequency present in the data.