Kirchhoff (diffraction stack) migration an integral (or summation) solution to the wave equation a point scatterer/diffractor creates a hyperbola

in the zero-offset section a reflector is equivalent to a line of closely spaced point diffractors

Yilmaz 2001

scheme one: spread a single sample on the unmigrated trace to all possible reflection points this creates the semi-circular impulse response the circle is stretched vertically if velocity increases with depth analytical solution exists the circle is deformed if there is lateral velocity variation requires ray-tracing to find it do this for all samples on unmigrated traces, and add where neighbouring samples agree with each other, they will add together constructive interference where they disagree, they will cancel destructive interference
Yilmaz 2001

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.3-8

Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

Kirchhoff (diffraction stack) migration scheme two: compute a single sample on a migrated trace by adding together all unmigrated samples along the diffraction hyperbola (diffraction stack) if diffractor (or piece of reflector) exists, a signal will add up at the migrated sample point the overlying rms velocity defines the hyperbola for 1D velocity structure a non-hyperbolic shape is created by lateral velocity variation must be ray-traced repeat for all samples in the migrated image
Yilmaz 2001

the two schemes are equivalent; the latter is more common during the summation, the amplitude and phase must be corrected for spreading and obliquity of the ray paths the corrected summation along the hyperbola is called the Kirchhoff summation migration aperture is the distance along the line that the summation follows the hyperbola deeper reflectors require longer aperture steeper dips require larger aperture performance of Kirchhoff migration: all dips; complex velocity structure; slow (especially with lateral velocity variation)
Hole: GEOS 4174 4.3-9 Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

finite difference migration a finite-difference solution to the wave equation in the exploding reflector model: at time t = 0 , the upgoing wavefield has the reflectors shape this is known as the imaging principle the acoustic (P-wave only) wave equation for pressure P( x , z, t ) or P( x , z, ) is:

2P 2P 2 2P or + 2 + 2 =0 2 2 x z v the observed zero-offset stacked section is the wavefield at the surface P( x , z = 0, t )

downward continuation using a finite-difference approximation of the wave equation, backwards extrapolate the wavefield from its known value at depth z = 0 down to a new depth z = z this is equivalent to computing the wavefield that would have been observed with the receivers at this greater depth at this depth, the wavefield at zero time has the shape of reflectors at this depth repeat extrapolation to greater depths the migrated reflection section is the value of the wavefield at zero time P( x , z, t = 0)

2P 2P 1 2P + 2 2 2 =0 2 x z v t

Hole: GEOS 4174 4.3-10

Yilmaz 2001

Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

finite difference migration the finite-difference wave propagation scheme can be implemented in the time or frequency domain two common finite-difference approximations exist: the 15 approximation (parabolic equation) can image dips to about 35 and is usually implemented in the time (t-x) domain the 45 approximation can image dips to about 65 and is usually implemented in the frequency (f-x) domain higher-dip approximations exist, but are computationally slow steeper dips are under-migrated and dispersed (spread out in time and frequency) => artifacts both vertical and lateral velocity variation can be easily included in the finite difference scheme the step size in depth (or in time for time migration) for the downward continuation is critical steps too large will produce under-migration steps too large or too small produce dispersion spreading of the arrival in time & frequency steeper dips require smaller steps optimum step size is about half of the dominant wavelength (or period for time migration) performance of finite-difference migration: moderately fast; complex velocity structure; dip-limited (unless slow high-dip approx. used)

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.3-11

Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

frequency-wavenumber (f-k) migration a Fourier transform solution to the wave equation

Yilmaz 2001

Stolt migration for constant velocity, migration operator in the f-k domain (actually f-kx-kz domain) shifts the reflector by an amount e z for variable velocity, first locally stretch the time axis to simulate constant velocity introduces inaccuracy, so only works for smooth velocity phase-shift (= Gazdag) migration for depth-varying velocity, perform the operation in the f-kx-z domain by downward continuation in small steps z for laterally variable velocity, first locally stretch the time axis to simulate laterally constant vel. introduces inaccuracy, so only works for smooth velocity spatial aliasing of steep dips produces artifacts in f-k migration performance of frequency-wavenumber migration: fast; all dips; limited to laterally smooth (almost 1D) velocity structure
Hole: GEOS 4174 4.3-12 Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

ik z

prestack migration

events with different dips can overlap in the CMP gather => a single stacking velocity cannot work dipping events are not centered at zero offset => NMO correction cannot work => requires prestack time migration the semi-circular impulse response of stacked (zerooffset) trace becomes an ellipse with the source and receiver at the foci; the ellipse is stretched by vertical velocity variation generally, this can be replaced by DMO + post-stack time migration
Yilmaz 2001

strong lateral velocity variation along ray paths (i.e., at shallower depth than reflection target) creates non-hyperbolic moveout => violates assumptions of NMO/DMO; stacking cannot work => requires prestack depth migration the impulse response ellipse is distorted by vertical and lateral velocity variation requires a better velocity model than time migration

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.3-13

Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

another migration example: salt flanks stack

prestack time migration

Yilmaz 2001

prestack time migration has imaged the steep dips on either side of the salt
Hole: GEOS 4174 4.3-14 Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing

another migration example: complex salt structure

Ikelle & Amundsen 2005

prestack depth migration has imaged the bottom of salt and underlying strata

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.3-15

Reflection Data Processing: Poststack Signal Processing