NMO stretch in vertical transverse isotropic media presented by nonhyperbolic approximations

Abstract

Normal-moveout (NMO) correction is an inevitable part of routine seismic data processing and imaging. NMO correction suffers from an undesirable phenomenon called NMO stretching, which is more pronounced in larger emerging angles. Frequency distortions caused by NMO stretching for isotropic media have fully been studied in the literature. We express the distortions for the simplest case of anisotropy, which is vertical transverse isotropic media. This is done through different nonhyperbolic approximations, including shifted-hyperbola approximation, rational approximation, and generalized moveout approximation (GMA). To evaluate the predicted distortions, we define a trace-muting threshold and use it in the trace-muting procedure for synthetic data, as well as a field recorded example. Comparison between the results proves that the GMA has the highest accuracy among the other presented approximations. The proposed approach has an immediate potential to be used in industry and also to help to develop innovative nonstretch NMO correction workflows.