3D Prestack Wave-Equation Imaging - a Rapidly Evolving Technology

E-27 3-D PRESTACK WAVE-EQUATION IMAGING: A RAPIDLYEVOLVING TECHNOLOGY 1 Introduction BIONDO BIONDI* ROBERT G. CLAPP MARIE PRUCHA AND PAUL SAVA Department of Geophysics Stanford University Stanford CA 94305 USA Wave-equation migration is an accurate and robust alternative to Kirchhoff migration when multipathingandothercomplexwavephenomenaoccur suchasinsubsaltexploration. Inthesesituations imagesobtainedbywave-equationmigrationareoftensuperiortoimagesobtainedbyKirchhoffmethods.However 3-Dwave-equationprestackimagingisanimmaturetechnologycomparedwithKirchhoff imaging and thus its full potential is still far from being fulfilled. In this paper we discuss some ofthenewchallengesthatweencounterwhenapplyingwavefieldsmethodsto3-Dprestackimaging. Velocity estimation is probably the most urgent of these challenges. Substantial progress towards the preservation of reflector amplitudes under complex overburden andwith irregular acquisition geometry are also on the horizon. 2 Migration Velocity Analysis 1