Joint Domain Full Waveform Inversion

Abstract

Summary The cycle-skipping issue is the main challenge in the field application of Full Waveform Inversion (FWI) when the initial velocity model is inaccurate and the data is lack of low frequency. In this abstract, we propose a Joint-Domain FWI (JDFWI) framework to overcome the cycle-skipping issue by solving a least-squares objective function minimising the travel time misfit in both data and model domains. In the model domain, we adapt the delay time common image gather (DTCIG) to measure the travel time inaccuracy. In the data domain, we extract the travel time misfit between the field and simulated data without adapting their amplitude information. Application of the proposed JDFWI on the 2D example with complex salt bodies demonstrates that it can overcome the cycle skipping issue due to both poor initial model and lack of low frequency. The results of the Gulf of Mexico ocean-bottom node (OBN) application show improved salt boundary estimation without introducing a halo and the recovery of detailed velocity feature that matches with the geology structure on the reflectivity image.