Common-reflection-point time migration

Abstract

Since the early days of seismic processing, time migration has proven to be a valuable tool for a number of imaging purposes. Main motivations for its widespread use include robustness with respect to velocity errors, as well as fast turnaround and low computation costs. In areas of complex geology, in which it has well-known limitations, time migration can still be of value by providing first images and also attributes, which can be of much help in further, more comprehensive depth migration. Time migration is a very close process to common-midpoint (CMP) stacking and, more recently, to zero-offset commonreflection- surface (CRS) stacking. In fact, Kirchhoff time migration operators can be readily formulated in terms of CRS parameters. In the nineties, several studies have shown advantages in the use of common-reflection-point (CRP) traveltimes to replace conventional CMP traveltimes for a number of stacking and migration purposes. In this paper, we follow that trend and introduce a Kirchhoff-type prestack time migration and velocity analysis algorithm, referred to as CRP time migration. The algorithm is based on a CRP operator together with optimal apertures, both computed with the help of CRS parameters. A field-data example indicates the potential of the proposed technique.