Reverse time migration in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media

Abstract

Reverse time migration (RTM) exhibits great advantages over other imaging methods because it is based on computing numerical solutions to a two-way wave equation. It does not suffer from dip limitation like one-way downward continuation techniques do, thus enabling overturned reflections to be imaged. As well as correctly handling multipathing, RTM has the potential to image internal multiples when the boundaries responsible for generating the multiples are present in the model. In isotropic media, one can use a scalar acoustic wave equation for RTM of pressure data. In anisotropic media, P- and SV-waves are coupled together so, formally, elastic wave equations must be used for RTM. A new wave equation for P-waves is proposed in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media that can be solved as part of an acoustic anisotropic RTM algorithm, using standard explicit finite differencing. If the shear velocity along the axis of symmetry is set to zero, stable numerical solutions can be computed for media with a vertical axis of symmetry and [Formula: see text] not less than [Formula: see text]. In TTI media with rapid variations in the direction of the axis of symmetry, setting the shear velocity along the axis of symmetry to zero can cause numerical solutions to become unstable. A solution to this problem is proposed that involves using a small amount of nonzero shear velocity. The amount of shear velocity added is chosen to remove triplications from the SV wavefront and to minimize the anisotropic term of the SV reflection coefficient. We show modeling and high-quality RTM results in complex TTI media using this equation.