From time to depth imaging with ‘Beyond Dix’

Gilles Lambaré, Philippe Herrmann, Patrice Guillaume, Serge Zimine, Simon Wolfarth, Olivier Hermant, and Suhail Butt introduce a processing innovation to bridge the gap between time and depth imaging which goes beyond the familiar 1D Dix conversion. In many parts of the world, pre-stack time migration (PSTM) still represents the majority of seismic imaging activity in the industry. The reason for this is the simple efficiency and robustness of time imaging and its ability to focus seismic reflectors for many geological settings. Limitations of PSTM appear in the case of strong lateral velocity variations, where the more rigorous imaging and more accurate velocity models offered by Pre-Stack Depth Migration (PSDM) are required. In areas of moderate complexity, where PSTM begins to struggle we introduce a new, accurate method, ‘Beyond Dix’, to help bridge the gap between PSTM and PSDM.