Tilted Transversely Isotropic Media Research Articles

Quasi-P-Wave Reverse Time Migration in TTI Media with a Generalized Fractional Convolution Stencil

In seismic modeling and reverse time migration (RTM), incorporating anisotropy is crucial for accurate wavefield modeling and high-quality images. Due to the trade-off between computational cost and simulation accuracy, the pure quasi-P-wave equation has good accuracy to describe wave propagation in tilted transverse isotropic (TTI) media. However, it involves a fractional pseudo-differential operator that depends on the anisotropy parameters, making it unsuitable for resolution using conventional solvers for fractional operators. To address this issue, we propose a novel pure quasi-P-wave equation with a generalized fractional convolution operator in TTI media. First, we decompose the conventional pure quasi-P-wave equation into an elliptical anisotropy equation and a fractional pseudo-differential correction term. Then, we use a generalized fractional convolution stencil to approximate the spatial-domain pseudo-differential term through the solution of an inverse problem. The proposed approximation method is accurate, and the wavefield modeling method based on it also accurately describes quasi-P-wave propagation in TTI media. Moreover, it only increases the computational cost for calculating mixed partial derivatives compared to those in vertical transverse isotropic (VTI) media. Finally, the proposed wavefield modeling method is utilized in RTM to correct the anisotropic effects in seismic imaging. Numerical RTM experiments demonstrate the flexibility and viability of the proposed method.

Efficient reverse time migration method in tilted transversely isotropic media based on a pure pseudoacoustic wave equation

In general, velocity anisotropy in shale media has been widely observed in laboratory and field work, which means that disregarding this characteristic can lead to inaccurate imaging locations when data are imaged with reverse time migration (RTM). Wavefields simulated with the conventional coupled pseudoacoustic wave equation may introduce S-wave noise and this equation is only valid in transversely isotropic media ([Formula: see text]). Certain decoupled qP-wave equations require the use of the pseudospectral method, which makes them computationally inefficient. To address these issues, we develop a new pure qP acoustic wave equation based on the acoustic assumption, which can be solved more efficiently using the finite-difference (FD) method. This equation can also be used in the forward-modeling process of RTM in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. First, we perform a Taylor expansion of the root term in the pure qP-wave dispersion relation. This leads to an anisotropic dispersion relation that is decomposed into an elliptical anisotropic background factor and a circular correction factor. Second, we obtain the pure qP-wave equation in TTI media without a pseudodifferential operator. The new equation can be efficiently solved using FD methods and can be applied to RTM in TTI media with strong anisotropy. Our method indicates greater tolerance to numerical errors and is better suited for strong anisotropy, as compared with previously published methods. Numerical examples indicate the high kinematic and phase accuracy of our pure qP-wave equation along with its stability in TTI media characterized by ([Formula: see text]). By using a sag model and an overthrust TTI model, we determine the efficiency and accuracy of our TTI RTM.

Efficient least-squares reverse time migration in TTI media using a finite-difference solvable pure qP-wave equation

Abstract The anisotropic characteristics of underground media play a crucial role in seismic wave propagation and should be accounted for during seismic imaging. The least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) method achieves ideal imaging results by suppressing migration artifacts and balancing amplitude. Therefore, pure quasi-P (P-qP) wave equations in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media have been widely used to implement LSRTM, owing to their ability to produce stable and noise-free wavefields. However, solving the anisotropic P-qP-wave equations typically necessitates the use of spectral-based methods, making them computationally inefficient, especially in 3D applications. In this study, we first develop a P-qP-wave equation in TTI media that can be efficiently computed through the finite-difference (FD) approach. Numerical tests show that, in comparison to the previous TTI P-qP-wave equation, the newly derived FD solvable TTI P-qP-wave equation yields reasonably accurate and highly efficient wavefield simulations. Then, building on our newly derived wave equation, we derive its adjoint migration and demigration operator to implement TTI LSRTM. Two synthetic examples suggest that the newly presented P-qP-wave TTI LSRTM approach effectively correct for the anisotropy effects, providing high-quality imaging results. Additionally, our approach has superior computational efficiency over the conventional P-qP-wave TTI LSRTM technique based on a hybrid FD pseudo-spectral (HFDPS) solver.

Simplified TTI pure qP-wave equation implemented in the space domain and applied for reverse time migration in TTI media

The assumption that the earth’s subsurface is a homogeneous and isotropic medium enables the imaging of important geologic structures but results in information loss, especially in more complex geologic media. Therefore, considering anisotropy is crucial for seismic imaging, particularly the most common anisotropy in geophysics: the transversely isotropic medium. However, this also means a considerable increase in the computational cost of reverse time migration (RTM). Thus, a new pseudoacoustic wave equation for pure qP-wave in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media, which can also be efficiently implemented using the finite-difference (FD) method with the unit vector method (UVM), is proposed, aiming to reduce the computational cost of the RTM. The proposed equation solved with fast Fourier transforms is exact and faster for seismic migration than the base equations found in the literature; however, a greater efficiency is achievable by using FD to compute the second derivatives. In contrast, when solved with the UVM, it is kinematically accurate and significantly faster, although dynamically inaccurate as it is an acoustic approximation. The efficiency and efficacy of this new equation are demonstrated by modeling and migrating synthetic TTI data found in the literature.

Elastic full-waveform inversion in tilted transverse isotropy media using Gauss Newton optimization

In anisotropic full waveform inversion (FWI), the underground medium is commonly assumed to be vertical transverse isotropy (VTI). However, in reality, the presence of stress and tectonic movements often leads to a nonzero tilt angle θt of the strata's symmetry axis. This introduces variations in the direction of the fast axis during the propagation of seismic waves. Therefore, it is more practical and beneficial to consider tilted transverse isotropy (TTI) media when dealing with complex geological structures, as it enhances the accuracy of imaging and inversion. However, the consideration of TTI media also introduces a significant challenge of parameter coupling, commonly known as crosstalk or trade-off. This refers to the situation where the update of one parameter affects and projects onto other parameters. To address this issue and improve the inversion accuracy, we incorporate the Hessian within the inversion process. The off-diagonal elements of the Hessian matrix specifically provide important information about the correlations between different parameters, which aids in their decoupling and mitigates the effect of crosstalk. In numerical experiments, we applied the Gauss-Newton (GN) method to TTI elastic FWI and compared the results with those obtained using the preconditioned conjugate gradient (P-CG) method.The inversion results indicate that the GN method can better alleviate the parameter coupling, making simultaneous inversion of multiple parameters possible. θt

A fast anisotropic decoupled operator of elastic wave propagation in the space domain for P-/S-wave-mode decomposition and angle calculation, with its application to elastic reverse time migration in a TI medium

The conventional anisotropic P-/S-wave-mode decomposition and angle calculation usually are performed in the wavenumber domain and require multiple Fourier transforms and rely on strong model assumptions. Therefore, it is difficult to use in production due to the prohibitively high computational cost. To tackle this problem, we develop a fast anisotropic P-/S-wave-mode decomposition approach in the space domain and further apply this decomposition to the vertical transversely isotropic (VTI)/tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) elastic reverse time migration (ERTM) and the associated angle-domain common-image gathers (ADCIGs). To start with, we solve the Christoffel equation of the VTI media and obtain an anisotropic-Helmholtz (AH) operator that represents the P- and S-wave polarizations in the wavenumber domain. The decoupled operators for the P-/S-wave decomposition are then derived in terms of the AH operator. To improve the efficiency and model adaptability, we convert the decoupled operators from the wavenumber domain to the space domain as a function of the model parameters and phase angle. By further eliminating the phase-angle term, such space-domain decoupled operators lead to the approximate P- and S-wave components which are proven to achieve the same effect as the accurate P and S wavefields applied in the angle calculation and ERTM images. A fast space-domain AH decomposition approach is thus obtained and can be used for P-/S-wave-mode decomposition, ADCIGs, and ERTM. In addition, we extend our approach to the TTI media by using the coordinate transform. Three examples are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of our method.

Elastic anisotropic finite-difference full-wave modeling and imaging of 2D tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media

Imaging below the tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media pose serious problems and distortions of the subsurface geological targets of interest for hydrocarbon exploration, which is very common in fold-thrust belts or active tectonic areas like the Rocky Mountain foothills of the Canada or foothills of the Himalaya. To model and image below the TTI media having symmetry axis orthogonal to dipping anisotropic layers, a 2D TTI thrust sheet is considered for elastic anisotropic finite-difference full-wave modeling and generation of synthetic seismic data using the robust staggered-grid scheme of wave propagation. Free-surface boundary conditions at the top and absorbing boundary conditions for the other three sides of the model have been imposed to reduce undesirable edge effects and suppress dispersions. The synthetic seismic data generated for the 2D TTI thrust model are migrated using the anisotropic Kirchhoff pre-stack time (PSTM) and depth migration (PSDM) technique followed by the migration velocity analysis (MVA) algorithm. The traveltime computations are made using robust eikonal equations with fourth-order elastic anisotropic finite-difference solutions to handle large tilts (ν) along with anisotropic ray-tracing to image below the TTI thrust sheet. The MVA algorithm adopted also estimates the anisotropic parameters ε and δ accurately within the acceptable error limit through successive iterations of inversion and parameter update, which results in sufficient flattening of the reflection events in the common image gathers (CIGs). This is a powerful and stable methodology to handle large tilt (ν = 60°) of the steeply dipping reflectors in complex geological structure like the TTI thrust model without much distortion of CIGs for which the symmetry axis of each TTI block is set orthogonal to the bottom of the reflectors having different tilts.

Q-compensated least-squares reverse time migration in TTI media using the visco-acoustic TTI wave equation based on the SLS model

The anelasticity and anisotropy widely exist in real subsurface media. Strong anelasticity will lead to phase dispersion and amplitude attenuation during seismic wave propagation. Anisotropy cause seismic waves to have obviously different kinematic characteristics from that of isotropy. For seismic migration, ignoring the anelasticity and anisotropy of subsurface media will significantly reduce the quality of migration images, even cause imaging failure. We propose a Q-compensated least-squares reverse time migration (Q-LSRTM) in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media to correct these effects. According to the Born approximation of seismic wave equation, a linearized visco-acoustic TTI pure qP-wave modeling operator is derived using a new visco-acoustic TTI wave equation for one standard linear solid (SLS) model, which can deal with the anelasticity and can simulate pure qP-wave steadily in attenuating anisotropic media without qSV-wave artifacts. Then, the corresponding adjoint equation is formulated using the adjoint-state method to calculate the gradient sensitivity kernel for the visco-acoustic TTI media. Because of the least-squares inversion, the Q compensation can be achieved during the iterations, so that the over-amplification of noises can be avoided naturally. In addition, compared with conventional LSRTM, the proposed method compensates for the anelasticity and corrects the anisotropy, so as to produce images with better spatial resolution and amplitude fidelity. Numerical examples demonstrate the feasibility and advantages of the proposed method for the data including strong attenuation effects over conventional LSRTM.

Detection of Natural Tilted Fractures From Azimuthal Seismic Amplitude Data Based on Linear-Slip Theory

Tilted transverse isotropy (TTI) is common for naturally fractured reservoir when the fractures exist a tilted axis of symmetry. Seismic characterization of natural tilted fractures from observable azimuthal reflected amplitude data, however, is quite difficult. We focus on the detection of natural tilted fractures from azimuthal seismic amplitude data, especially for low- and high-angle tilted fractures. Using the linear-slip theory, we first express the effective elastic stiffness matrix of a TTI medium as a function of background elastic moduli, fracture density, and three angles, including the incident angle, the azimuth angle, and the tilt angle. Based on the scattering function and the first-order perturbations in stiffness components across a weak-contrast reflection interface separating two weak-anisotropy TTI media, we then derive a weak-anisotropy and linearized PP-wave reflection coefficient containing the tilt angle and fracture density. For low- and high-angle aligned fracture sets, we formulate the low- and high-angle approximate PP-wave reflection coefficient equations, respectively, and propose a Bayesian seismic inversion approach to estimate the tilt angle and the corresponding fracture densities using the azimuthal differences in seismic reflected amplitude data. Synthetic and real datasets are used to demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of the proposed inversion approach. Test results make us believe that our proposed inversion approach allow us to obtain the tilted fracture properties of hydrocarbon reservoirs in a more accurate manner than previous cases of vertically transverse isotropy (VTI) or horizontally transverse isotropy (HTI).

An iterative factored topography-dependent eikonal solver for anisotropic media

Accurate and efficient eikonal solvers for heterogeneous media play an important role in many areas of seismology, such as seismic tomography, migration, and earthquake localization. Incorporating seismic anisotropy and complex topography remain a computational challenge for finite-difference eikonal solvers. In recent years, the topography-dependent eikonal equation (TDEE) has been proposed as an effective way to calculate seismic traveltimes for isotropic and anisotropic media with irregular topography. However, the Lax-Friedrichs sweeping method used in previous studies to approximate the viscosity solution of TDEE for anisotropic media is more dissipative and needs a much higher number of iterations to converge. In addition, the TDEE solution for the initial point source has an upwind source singularity, which makes all TDEE solvers, even the high-order ones, exhibit polluted convergence and relatively large errors that propagate from the point source to the entire computational domain. To solve these problems, we have formulated the factored topography-dependent anisotropic eikonal (FTDAE) equation in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media using the factorization principle. Then, the resulting quartic equation can be numerically solved by using a fixed-point iteration technique based on the simpler elliptical anisotropic eikonal (EAE) equation with a high-order source term due to anelliptical anisotropy introduced by TTI media. At each iteration, the unknown traveltime in the EAE equation is factored into two functions: One of the functions is specified analytically to capture the source singularity, such that the unknown factor is differentiable in the source neighborhood and could be solved by the fast sweeping method. Numerical examples indicate that our FTDAE solver can treat source singularity successfully and achieve high accuracy after just a few iterations, independently of the mesh size, which could provide a more efficient and robust tool for traveltime calculation in the presence of seismic anisotropy and complex surfaces.

Decoupled approximation and separate extrapolation of P- and SV-waves in transversely isotropic media

Characterizing the kinematics of seismic waves in elastic vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) media involves four independent parameters. To reduce the complexity, the acoustic approximation for P-waves reduces the number of required parameters to three by setting the vertical S-wave velocity to zero. However, because only the SV-wave phase velocities parallel or perpendicular to the symmetry axis are indirectly set to zero, the acoustic approximation leads to coupled P-wave components and SV-wave artifacts. The new acoustic approximation suggests setting the vertical S-wave velocity as a phase angle-dependent variable so that the SV-wave phase velocity is zero at all phase angles. We find that manipulating this parameter is a valid approach for P-wave approximation but doing so inevitably leads to zero- or nonzero-valued spurious SV-wave components. Thus, we have developed a novel approach to efficiently approximate and thoroughly separate the two wave modes in VTI media. First, the exact P- and SV-wave phase velocity expressions are rewritten by introducing an auxiliary function. After confirming the insensitivity of this function, we construct a new expression for it and obtain simplified P- and SV-wave phase velocity expressions, which are three and four parameters, respectively. This approximation process leads to the same reasonable error for both wave modes. Accuracy analysis indicates that, for the P-wave, the overall accuracy performance of our approach is comparable to that of some existing three-parameter approximations. We then derive the corresponding P- and SV-wave equations in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media and provide two available solutions, the hybrid finite-difference/pseudospectral scheme and the low-rank approach. Numerical examples illustrate the separability and high accuracy of the proposed P- and SV-wave simulation methods in TTI media.

Azimuthal amplitude variation with offset parameterization and inversion for fracture weaknesses in tilted transversely isotropic media

The characterization of fracture-induced tilted transverse isotropy (TTI) seems to be more suitable to actual scenarios of geophysical exploration for fractured reservoirs. Fracture weaknesses enable us to describe fracture-induced anisotropy. With the incident and reflected PP-wave in TTI media, we have adopted a robust method of azimuthal amplitude variation with offset (AVO) parameterization and inversion for fracture weaknesses in a fracture-induced reservoir with TTI symmetry. Combining the linear-slip model with the Bond transformation, we have derived the stiffness matrix of a dipping-fracture-induced TTI medium characterized by normal and tangential fracture weaknesses and a tilt angle. Integrating the first-order perturbations in the stiffness matrix of a TTI medium and scattering theory, we adopt a method of azimuthal AVO parameterization for PP-wave reflection coefficient for the case of a weak-contrast interface separating two homogeneous weakly anisotropic TTI layers. We then adopt an iterative inversion method by using the partially incidence-angle-stacked seismic data with different azimuths to estimate the fracture weaknesses of a TTI medium when the tilt angle is estimated based on the image well logs prior to the seismic inversion. Synthetic examples confirm that the fracture weaknesses of a TTI medium are stably estimated from the azimuthal seismic reflected amplitudes for the case of moderate noise. A field data example demonstrates that geologically reasonable results of fracture weaknesses can be determined when the tilt angle is treated as the prior information. We determine that the azimuthal AVO inversion approach provides an available tool for fracture prediction in a dipping-fracture-induced TTI reservoir.

A fast-marching eikonal solver for tilted transversely isotropic media

Fast and accurate traveltime computation for quasi-P waves in anisotropic media is an essential ingredient of many seismic processing and interpretation applications such as Kirchhoff modeling and migration, microseismic source localization, and traveltime tomography. Fast-sweeping methods are widely used for solving the anisotropic eikonal equation due to their flexibility in solving general equations compared to the fast-marching method. However, it has been observed that fast sweeping can be much less efficient than fast marching for models with curved characteristics and practical grid sizes. By representing a tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) equation as a sequence of elliptically isotropic (EI) eikonal equations, we determine that the fast-marching algorithm can be used to compute fast and accurate traveltimes for TTI media. The tilt angle is absorbed into the description of the effective EI model; therefore, the adopted approach does not compromise on the solution accuracy. Through tests on benchmark synthetic models, we test our fast-marching algorithm and discover considerable improvement in accuracy by using factorization and a second-order finite-difference stencil. The adopted methodology opens the door to the possibility of using the fast-marching algorithm for a wider class of anisotropic eikonal equations.

Broadband finite-difference Q-compensated reverse time migration algorithm for tilted transverse isotropic media

[Formula: see text]-compensated reverse time migration (Q-RTM) is effective for improving the seismic imaging quality degraded by low-[Formula: see text] anomalies. However, it is difficult to apply existing pseudospectral-based Q-RTM methods to large-scale problems due to the obstacles to high-efficient parallelization posed by the global pseudospectral operators. On the other hand, finite-difference Q-RTM is intrinsically appropriate for domain decomposition and parallel computation, thus being suitable for industrial-sized problems but facing a twofold challenge: (1) to effectively compensate the phase in a broad-bandwidth sense during the wave back-propagation process and (2) to accurately handle the tilted transverse isotropic (TTI) medium with attenuation. We have developed a new framework of finite-difference Q-RTM algorithm by expanding the linear viscoacoustic constitutive relation to a series of integer-order differential terms and a unique integral term that can decouple the amplitude and the phase to allow accurate compensation in a broader frequency range. This framework has two typical implementations: (1) optimizing the frequency-dependent phase velocity (while fixing the negative constant [Formula: see text]) and (2) optimizing the [Formula: see text] value (while fixing the frequency-dependent phase velocity). We generalize this broadband finite-difference Q-RTM algorithm to TTI media, where an artificial [Formula: see text] is applied to suppress the shear-wave artifacts induced by the acoustic TTI approximation. Numerical examples demonstrate that this Q-RTM method accurately compensates the phase and amplitude in a broad frequency range of 5–70 Hz and produces high-quality images. Due to the local nature of finite-difference operators, this algorithm is expected to outperform the existing pseudospectral-based Q-RTM methods in terms of computational efficiency and implementation convenience for real-world Q-RTM projects.

Multistage elastic full-waveform inversion for tilted transverse isotropic media

SUMMARYSeismic anisotropy is an important physical phenomenon that significantly affects wave propagation in complex sedimentary basins. When geological structures exhibit steep dips or severe folding, the symmetry axis of the transversely isotropic (TI) representation of the region can be rotated, leading to tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. We seek to find the optimal full-waveform inversion (FWI) strategy to estimate both the seismic velocities and the anisotropic parameters, including the tilt angle, in the presence of elastic TTI media. We first formulate the forward and inverse problems for elastic TTI media and analyse the radiation patterns of the model parameters. Based on the analyses of the radiation patterns, we propose two similar multistage FWI strategies that add inversion parameters over three stages, beginning with the isotropic parameters (horizontal P- and vertical S-wave velocity) and moving to the anisotropic parameters; the tilt angle is directly inverted in the last stage. Since diving waves, which are useful for providing long-wavelength updates, are mainly controlled by horizontal motion in anisotropic media, it is reasonable to choose the horizontal P-wave velocity rather than the vertical P-wave velocity. Then, the anisotropic parameters are inverted mainly using the reflected waves based on the isotropic background model built in the first stage. The main difference between the two multistage FWI strategies is whether the anisotropic parameter η is inverted. Comparing the two multistage FWI strategies with the simultaneous inversion strategy for a downsized version of the synthetic BP TTI model, we confirm that the multistage FWI strategies yield better inversion results than the simultaneous inversion strategy. When we compare the two multistage FWI strategies with each other for surface seismic data, ignoring η during the FWI process (focused multistage FWI) yields better inversion results for the tilt angle than those obtained with the inversion of η because η has less influence on the FWI than the other parameters and is not recovered well, which plays a role in degrading the tilt angle. Numerical examples support our conclusions that the focused multistage FWI strategy (neglecting η) is the optimal FWI strategy for TTI media and achieves computational efficiency for surface seismic data.

Least-squares reverse time migration in TTI media using a pure qP-wave equation

Anisotropy is a common phenomenon in subsurface strata and should be considered in seismic imaging and inversion. Seismic imaging in a vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) medium does not take into account the effects of the tilt angles, which can lead to degraded migrated images in areas with strong anisotropy. To correct such waveform distortion, reduce related image artifacts, and improve migration resolution, a tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) method is presented. In the LSRTM, a pure qP-wave equation is used and solved with the finite-difference method. We have analyzed the stability condition for the pure qP-wave equation using the matrix method, which is used to ensure the stability of wave propagation in the TTI medium. Based on this wave equation, we derive a corresponding demigration (Born modeling) and adjoint migration operators to implement TTI LSRTM. Numerical tests on the synthetic data show the advantages of TTI LSRTM over VTI RTM and VTI LSRTM when the recorded data contain strong effects caused by large tilt angles. Our numerical experiments illustrate that the sensitivity of the adopted TTI LSRTM to the migration velocity errors is much higher than that to the anisotropic parameters (including epsilon, delta, and tilted angle parameters), and its sensitivity to the epsilon model and tilt angle is higher than that to the delta model.

Numerical simulation of seismic wave in elastic and viscoelastic TTI media*

Based on the two-dimensional (2D) three-component first-order velocity-stress equation, the high order staggered mesh finite difference numerical simulation method was used to simulate the elastic and viscoelastic tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. The perfect matched layer (PML) absorption boundary condition was selected to eliminate the boundary effect. The results show that: ① Under the condition of fixed elastic parameters of elastic TTI medium, when the polarization angle and azimuth are 60° and 45° respectively, the degree of shear wave splitting is significantly greater than the angle of 0°; ② The influence of viscoelasticity on TTI medium is mainly reflected in the amplitude. If the quality factor decreases, the attenuation of the seismic wave amplitude increases, causing the waveform to become wider and distorted. If the quality factor increases, the viscoelastic medium becomes closer to elastic medium; ③ For TTI medium with different polarization angle and azimuth angle in the upper and lower layers, the shear wave can multiple splits at the interface of medium. The symmetry of seismograms is affected by the polarization angle and azimuth angle of TTI medium; ④ Viscoelasticity has a great influence on reflected wave, transmitted wave and converted wave in the low-velocity model. When the viscoelasticity is strong, the weaker waves may not be shown.

Modeling of pure qP- and qSV-waves in tilted transversely isotropic media with the optimal quadratic approximation

Seismic forward modeling in tilted transverse isotropic (TTI) media is crucial for the application of reverse time migration and full-waveform inversion. Modeling based on conventional coupled pseudoacoustic wave equations not only generates SV-wave artifacts, but it also suffers from instabilities in which the anisotropy parameter [Formula: see text]. To address these issues, we have started with the exact vertical transversely isotropic phase velocity formula and developed novel pure qP- and qSV-wave governing equations in TTI media by using the optimal quadratic approximation. For the convenience of using finite-difference (FD) method to solve the new pure qP- and qSV-wave wave equations, we decompose the equations into a combination of a time-space-domain wave equation that can be solved by the FD method and a Poisson equation that can be solved by the pseudospectral method. We find that the high-frequency errors caused by the pseudospectral method and the usual truncation errors in FD schemes may be responsible for the instability of the numerical simulations. To stabilize the computation, we design a 2D low-pass filtering operator to eliminate severe high-frequency numerical noise. Several numerical examples demonstrate that modeling using the new pure qP-wave equations does not have qSV-wave artifacts interference and is stable for [Formula: see text]. Our results indicate that our method can achieve highly accurate and stable modeling results even in extremely complex TTI media.

Dispersion and Stability Condition of Seismic Wave Simulation in TTI Media

For seismic waveform simulation in tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media, we derive explicitly the numerical dispersion relation and the stability condition for the computation of a 2D pseudo-acoustic wave equation. The numerical dispersion relation indicates that the number of sampling points per wavelength has the greatest influence on the dispersion, while the anisotropic parameters of the TTI media and the mesh rotation angle have little influence on the dispersion. Given an appropriate spatial sampling, the stability condition is for the selection of the time step for the implementation of the TTI wave equation. We partition a numerical model using quadrangle grids in Cartesian coordinates, and map it to a computing model in which any non-rectangular meshes in Cartesian coordinates become rectangular meshes. Then we reformulate the pseudo-acoustic wave equation for the TTI media accordingly in the computational space. We implement seismic waveform simulation using the second-order finite-difference method straightforwardly, and show examples with a desirable accuracy using a model with non-rectangular meshes in Cartesian coordinates along a curved surface and fluctuating interfaces in the TTI media.

Calculation of slowness vectors from ray directions for qP-, qSV-, and qSH-waves in tilted transversely isotropic media

Kinematic ray tracing is an effective way to simulate the seismic wave propagation in isotropic and anisotropic media. It is essential to know the ray velocity when tracing seismic rays. But in anisotropic media, the ray velocity is a function of the direction of the slowness vector instead of the ray direction and it often deviates from the phase velocity. In this case, it causes a critical problem for ray tracing, which is how to calculate the ray velocity from a known ray direction. If we could calculate the phase slowness vector from ray directions, the ray velocity could be computed. We have evaluated a previous method in the first place. Then, we developed two new methods to solve two existing problems of the previous method: (1) It leads to complex and multiple solutions of the slowness vector and (2) it mixes up the qP- and qSV-wave modes. Our first method solves the two problems by applying eigenvalues to separate the wave modes and decrease the two unknowns ([Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text]) to only one unknown in two equations. Our second method is based on the general relationship between the slowness and ray-velocity vectors and shows that only one unknown is involved in one equation for tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media. After obtaining the slowness vector, the ray velocity can be computed easily. A 2D model is designed to test the feasibility of the new methods. Using the results for the model, we found that the presented approaches were applicable for ray tracing in TTI media.