Applications of Reverse Time Multiple Migration - Discovering Hidden Information in Existing Data Sets

In the processing of marine streamer seismic data, energy from surface-related multiples is generally treated as noise and removed from the data. However, there may be valuable information hidden in the energy from coherent multiples that can be beneficial to seismic processing and imaging. To discover its potential, we modify the conventional reverse time migration (RTM) algorithm to utilize both the primary wavefield and the multiple wavefield. We name our migration approach Reverse Time Multiple Migration (RTMM). In this paper, we demonstrate that RTMM has a wider and more balanced illumination pattern as compared to conventional RTM. We also show that RTMM can produce a complementary image to conventional RTM, where shallow sediment and portions of the salt structure are better imaged. We then illustrate that RTMM can provide a precise water bottom horizon, thereby assisting Modelled Water-layer De-multiple in the removal of shallow water-layer-related multiples.