Migration velocity computation using plane wave decomposed data

In general, seismic data is acquired and processed as point source illuminated reflections. CDP or CMP processing is the central point of the processing sequence. Imaging is referred to as pre- or post- stack migrated data. Conventional CDP processing requires several velocity analyses, each for a different stage of the processing sequence to produce the final subsurface imaging. These velocities do not strictly relate to the subsurface physical parameters. However, the pre-stack shot domain imaging is the only procedure where the data satisfies the wave equation with no simplifying approximations and the velocities used for image construction are directly related to the subsurface physical characteristics.