Least-Squares Migration Technique Improves Imaging and Inversion Offshore China

Least-squares migration (LSM) has become an increasingly important imaging tool. Recently, several case studies have shown that LSM provides greatly improved seismic imaging. However, only a few examples reveal its advantages in both imaging and amplitude-vs.-offset (AVO) inversion. In this paper, the authors propose a least-squares Q migration (LSQM) method that combines the benefits of both LSM and Q prestack depth migration (QPSDM) to improve the amplitude fidelity and image resolution of seismic data.

Introduction

Seismic data can be considered an outcome of a forward modeling experiment with an unknown Earth velocity model and absorption Q model.