Ultra‐resolution surface‐consistent full waveform inversion

Abstract

Full waveform inversion for land seismic data requires the development of specific strategies for modelling the complex response associated to the near surface. Seismic wave propagation is distorted by several effects, such as topographic relief, wavefield scattering, attenuation (often frequency‐dependent) and anisotropy. The modelling of such shallow complexities is often unmanageable by parametric inversions such that data preconditioning and surface‐related corrections are required before tackling the full waveform inversion velocity modelling problem. We developed a unified framework addressing both surface‐consistent corrections and full waveform inversion by using the transmitted portion of the wavefield. The problem of surface‐consistent decomposition is recast in terms of the transmitted wavefield leading to kinematic and dynamic corrections to account for sub‐resolution wave propagation distortions occurring in the near surface weathering layer. Seismic data are deconvolved from the effects of the near surface to better represent the deeper subsurface wavefield propagation. Signal‐to‐noise enhancement is obtained after the surface‐consistent transmission preconditioning by the generation of virtual super gathers reconstructed in the midpoint‐offset sorting domain. An original scheme of 1.5D Laplace–Fourier full waveform inversion, involving 3D radiation and 1D velocity inversion, is then applied for the velocity reconstruction where the amplitude information of the seismic data is fully preserved and utilized. The unified approach of surface‐consistent transmission preconditioning and velocity modelling is demonstrated on the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Advanced Modelling arid model dataset as well as on two complex field datasets containing near surface complexities typical of arid regions. The approach provides the solution of the near surface distortions by performing data preconditioning and velocity inversions in a unified scheme. The surface‐consistent full waveform inversion approach has been utilized for large land seismic projects and represents a robust tool for supporting land seismic imaging.