To better assess quality of 3-D tomographic images and to better define possible improvements to tomographic inversion procedures, one must consider not only data quality and numerical precision of forward and inverse solvers but also appropriateness of model parametrization and display of results. The quality of the forward solution, in particular, strongly depends on parametrization of the ve...

An extension of the open–source Bayesian AVO inversion program Delivery [1],[2] to time–lapse seismic inversion problems is described. The inverse problem is for a trace–wise layer–stack model comprising unknown layer–times, rock properties, fluid types and saturations, and pore pressure changes. The “data” are true–amplitude imaged/migrated seismic reflectivity traces, for arbitrary numbers of...

We propose a robust interpolation scheme for aliased regularly sampled seismic data that uses the curvelet transform. In a first pass, the curvelet transform is used to compute the curvelet coefficients of the aliased seismic data. The aforementioned coefficients are divided into two groups of scales: alias-free and alias-contaminated scales. The alias-free curvelet coefficients are upscaled to...

A new approach to seismic migration formalizes the classical diffraction (or common-tangent) stack by relating it to linearized seismic inversion and the generalized Radon transform. This approach recasts migration as the problem of reconstructing the earth’s acoustic scattering potential from its integrals over isochron surfaces. The theory rests on a solution of the wave equation with the geo...

Imposing a thermal and compositional significance to the outcome of the inversion of seismic data facilitates their interpretation. Using long-period seismic waveforms and an inversion approach that includes constraints from mineral physics, we find that lateral variations of temperature can explain a large part of the data in the upper mantle. The additional compositional signature of cratons ...

Diierencing of time-dependent seismic monitor surveys requires that datasets are collected and processed consistently. Inconsistencies can result in data diierence noise great enough to obscure any reservoir changes. Inversion applied to each dataset may account for some of these inconsistencies. As an example, if the shape, temporal location, or radiation pattern of the seismic energy source i...

Waveform inversion is a velocity model building technique based on full seismograms as the input and seismic wavefields as the information carrier. Conventional waveform inversion is implemented in the data-domain. Similar techniques can be formulated in the image domain, with seismic image as the input and seismic wavefields as the information carrier. The objective function for image-domain w...

Sorting is a useful predictor for permeability. We show how to invert seismic data for a permeable rock sorting parameter by incorporating a probabilistic rock-physics model with floating grains into a Bayesian seismic inversion code that operates directly on rock-physics variables. The Bayesian prior embeds the coupling between elastic properties, porosity, and the floating-grain sorting param...

Under operator, matrix and inverse theory, seismic-wave imaging can be considered a unified process—mapping from data space to model space. The main topics in seismic-wave imaging include (1) seismic-data interpolation, regularization and redatuming, which mainly decrease the imaging noise; (2) seismic-wave illumination analysis, which predicts whether a target reflector can be imaged and evalu...

The objective of seismic imaging is to obtain an image of the subsurface reflectors, which is very important for estimating whether a reservoir is beneficial for oil/gas exploration or not. It can also provide the relative changes or absolute values of three elastic parameters: compressional wave velocity Vp, shear wave velocity Vs , and density ρ. Two ways can achieve the objectives. In approa...