Finite‐difference migration derived from the Kirchhoff‐Helmholtz integral

Abstract

Finite‐difference (FD) migration is one of the most often used standard migration methods in practice. The merit of FD migration is its ability to handle arbitrary laterally and vertically varying macro velocity fields. The well‐known disadvantage is that wave propagation is only performed accurately in a more or less narrow cone around the vertical. This shortcoming originates from the fact that the exact one‐way wave equation can be implemented only approximately in finite‐difference schemes because of economical reasons. The Taylor or continued fraction expansion of the square root operator in the one‐way wave equation must be truncated resulting in an approximate version of the one‐way wave equation valid only for a restricted angle range.