Comparison of full-wave and ray-tracing synthetic seismograms with emphasis on thin-layer resolution

Seismic modelling has become a well acknowledged procedure in several steps of the seismic exploration for hydrocarbons, such as within seismic survey planning and data interpretation. Several classes of theoretical/numerical models are used today, and there is a need for quantitative comparison between the various methods. In this paper asymptotic ray theory (ART) [1] and global matrix (CM) [2] methods are compared, with emphasis on temporal resolution with respect to thin layers (layer thickness (t) less than the compressional wavelength (λ)).