Review of Ray-born Forward Modeling for Migration

The ray-Born approximation is a very useful tool for forward modeling of scattered waves. The fact that ray-Born modeling underlies most seismic migration techniques, and therefore shares their assumptions, is a justification in itself to consider it for forward modeling. The ray-Born approximation does not make an explicit distinction between specular reflections and non-specular diffractions. It therefore allows to model diffractions from structural discontinuities such as edges and tips, as well as caustic diffractions. In its simpest implementation ray-Born seismograms are multiple-free. It can be orders of magnitude faster than finite-difference modeling, both in two- and three dimensions.