Seismic traveltime inversion

In most seismic applications, the traveltimes of the primary reflections constitute the main information about the subsurface. The traveltimes may be picked and used directly. or the parameters in a traveltime approximation may be estimated from the seismic data. For a given geological model the traveltimes may be computed by raytracing methods. Traveltime inversion consists of computing the geological structure and the velocity functions from the observed traveltimes.