Crosshole seismic waveform tomography – I. Strategy for real data application
File(s)j.1365-246X.2006.03030.x.pdf (811.93 KB)
Published version
Author(s)
Morgan, JV
Wang, Y
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The frequency-domain version of waveform tomography enables the use of distinct frequency components to adequately reconstruct the subsurface velocity field, and thereby dramatically reduces the input data quantity required for the inversion process. It makes waveform tomography a computationally tractable problem for production uses, but its applicability to real seismic data particularly in the petroleum exploration and development scale needs to be examined. As real data are often band limited with missing low frequencies, a good starting model is necessary for waveform tomography, to fill in the gap of low frequencies before the inversion of available frequencies. In the inversion stage, a group of frequencies should be used simultaneously at each iteration, to suppress the effect of data noise in the frequency domain. Meanwhile, a smoothness constraint on the model must be used in the inversion, to cope the effect of data noise, the effect of non-linearity of the problem, and the effect of strong sensitivities of short wavelength model variations. In this paper we use frequency-domain waveform tomography to provide quantitative velocity images of a crosshole target between boreholes 300 m apart. Due to the complexity of the local geology the velocity variations were extreme (between 3000 and 5500 m s−1), making the inversion problem highly non-linear. Nevertheless, the waveform tomography results correlate well with borehole logs, and provide realistic geological information that can be tracked between the boreholes with confidence.
Date Issued
2006-07-05
Date Acceptance
2006-04-01
Citation
Geophysical Journal International, 2006, 3, 166 (3), pp.1224-1236
ISSN
1365-246X
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
1224
End Page
1236
Journal / Book Title
Geophysical Journal International
Volume
166
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in GEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL © 2006 The Authors: Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Subjects
crosshole seismic
seismic inversion
waveform tomography
TRAVEL-TIME TOMOGRAPHY
FREQUENCY-DOMAIN
FINITE-DIFFERENCE
AMPLITUDE DATA
INTERFACE GEOMETRY
INVERSION
REFLECTION
VELOCITY
ATTENUATION
OPERATORS
Edition
3
Publication Status
Published