Linearized waveform inversion for vertical transversely isotropic elastic media:Methodology and multi-parameter crosstalk analysis

Seismic migration and inversion are closely related techniques to portray subsurface images and identify hydrocarbon reservoirs.Seismic migration aims at obtaining structural images of subsurface geologic discontinuities.More specifically,seismic migration estimates the reflectivity function(stacked average reflectivity or pre-stack angle-dependent reflectivity)from seismic reflection data.On the other hand,seismic inversion quantitatively estimates the intrinsic rock properties of subsurface formulations.Such seismic inversion methods are applicable to detect hydrocarbon reservoirs that may exhibit lateral variations in the inverted parameters.Although there exist many differences,pre-stack seismic migration is similar with the first iteration of the general linearized seismic inversion.Usually,seismic migration and inversion techniques assume an acoustic or isotropic elastic medium.Unconventional reservoirs such as shale and tight sand formation have notable anisotropic property.We present a linearized waveform inversion(LWI)scheme for weakly anisotropic elastic media with vertical transversely isotropic(VTI)symmetry.It is based on two-way anisotropic elastic wave equation and simultaneously inverts for the localized perturbations(ΔVp_(0)/Vp_(0)/Vs_(0)/Vs_(0)/,Δ∈,Δδ)from the long-wavelength reference model.Our proposed VTI-elastic LWI is an iterative method that requires a forward and an adjoint operator acting on vectors in each iteration.We derive the forward Born approximation operator by perturbation theory and adjoint operator via adjoint-state method.The inversion has improved the quality of the images and reduces the multi-parameter crosstalk comparing with the adjoint-based images.We have observed that the multi-parameter crosstalk problem is more prominent in the inversion images for Thomsen anisotropy parameters.Especially,the Thomsen parameter is the most difficult to resolve.We also analyze the multi-parameter crosstalk using scattering radiation patterns.The linearized waveform inversion for VTI-elastic media presented in this article provides quantitative information of the rock properties that has the potential to help identify hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Full waveform inversion based on hybrid gradient

The low-wavenumber components in the gradient of full waveform inversion(FWI)play a vital role in the stability of the inversion.However,when FWI is implemented in some high frequencies and current models are not far away from the real velocity model,an excessive number of low-wavenumber components in the gradient will also reduce the convergence rate and inversion accuracy.To solve this problem,this paper firstly derives a formula of scattering angle weighted gradient in FWI,then proposes a hybrid gradient.The hybrid gradient combines the conventional gradient of FWI with the scattering angle weighted gradient in each inversion frequency band based on an empirical formula derived herein.Using weighted hybrid mode,we can retain some low-wavenumber components in the initial lowfrequency inversion to ensure the stability of the inversion,and use more high-wavenumber components in the high-frequency inversion to improve the convergence rate.The results of synthetic data experiment demonstrate that compared to the conventional FWI,the FWI based on the proposed hybrid gradient can effectively reduce the low-wavenumber components in the gradient under the premise of ensuring inversion stability.It also greatly enhances the convergence rate and inversion accuracy,especially in the deep part of the model.And the field marine seismic data experiment also illustrates that the FWI based on hybrid gradient(HGFWI)has good stability and adaptability.

Quantitative ultrasound brain imaging with multiscale deconvolutional waveform inversion

High-resolution images of human brain are critical for monitoring the neurological conditions in a portable and safe manner.Sound speed mapping of brain tissues provides unique information for such a purpose.In addition,it is particularly important for building digital human acoustic models,which form a reference for future ultrasound research.Conventional ultrasound modalities can hardly image the human brain at high spatial resolution inside the skull due to the strong impedance contrast between hard tissue and soft tissue.We carry out numerical experiments to demonstrate that the time-domain waveform inversion technique,originating from the geophysics community,is promising to deliver quantitative images of human brains within the skull at a sub-millimeter level by using ultra-sound signals.The successful implementation of such an approach to brain imaging requires the following items:signals of sub-megahertz frequencies transmitting across the inside of skull,an accurate numerical wave equation solver simulating the wave propagation,and well-designed inversion schemes to reconstruct the physical parameters of targeted model based on the optimization theory.Here we propose an innovative modality of multiscale deconvolutional waveform inversion that improves ultrasound imaging resolution,by evaluating the similarity between synthetic data and observed data through using limited length Wiener filter.We implement the proposed approach to iteratively update the parametric models of the human brain.The quantitative imaging method paves the way for building the accurate acoustic brain model to diagnose associated diseases,in a potentially more portable,more dynamic and safer way than magnetic resonance imaging and x-ray computed tomography.

A Rayleigh Wave Globally Optimal Full Waveform Inversion Framework Based on GPU Parallel Computing

Conventional gradient-based full waveform inversion (FWI) is a local optimization, which is highly dependent on the initial model and prone to trapping in local minima. Globally optimal FWI that can overcome this limitation is particularly attractive, but is currently limited by the huge amount of calculation. In this paper, we propose a globally optimal FWI framework based on GPU parallel computing, which greatly improves the efficiency, and is expected to make globally optimal FWI more widely used. In this framework, we simplify and recombine the model parameters, and optimize the model iteratively. Each iteration contains hundreds of individuals, each individual is independent of the other, and each individual contains forward modeling and cost function calculation. The framework is suitable for a variety of globally optimal algorithms, and we test the framework with particle swarm optimization algorithm for example. Both the synthetic and field examples achieve good results, indicating the effectiveness of the framework. .

Multi-scale seismic full waveform inversion in the frequency-domain with a multi-grid method

Although full waveform inversion in the frequency domain can overcome the local minima problem in the time direction, such problem still exists in the space direction because of the media subsurface complexity. Based on the optimal steep descent methods, we present an algorithm which combines the preconditioned bi-conjugated gradient stable method and the multi-grid method to compute the wave propagation and the gradient space. The multiple scale prosperity of the waveform inversion and the multi-grid method can overcome the inverse problems local minima defect and accelerate convergence. The local inhomogeneous three-hole model simulated results and the Marmousi model certify the algorithm effectiveness.

Improved hybrid iterative optimization method for seismic full waveform inversion

In full waveform inversion （FWI）, Hessian information of the misfit function is of vital importance for accelerating the convergence of the inversion; however, it usually is not feasible to directly calculate the Hessian matrix and its inverse. Although the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno （L-BFGS） or Hessian-free inexact Newton （HFN） methods are able to use approximate Hessian information, the information they collect is limited. The two methods can be interlaced because they are able to provide Hessian information for each other; however, the performance of the hybrid iterative method is dependent on the effective switch between the two methods. We have designed a new scheme to realize the dynamic switch between the two methods based on the decrease ratio （DR） of the misfit function （objective function）, and we propose a modified hybrid iterative optimization method. In the new scheme, we compare the DR of the two methods for a given computational cost, and choose the method with a faster DR. Using these steps, the modified method always implements the most efficient method. The results of Marmousi and overthrust model testings indicate that the convergence with our modified method is significantly faster than that in the L-BFGS method with no loss of inversion quality. Moreover, our modified outperforms the enriched method by a little speedup of the convergence. It also exhibits better efficiency than the HFN method.

Parallel Algorithm in Surface Wave Waveform Inversion

In Surface wave waveform inversion, we want to reconstruct 3D shear wave velocity structure, which calculation beyond the capability of the powerful present day personal computer or even workstation. So we designed a high paralleled algorithm and carried out the inversion on Parallel computer based on the partitioned waveform inversion (PWI). It partitions the large scale optimization problem into a number of independent small scale problems and reduces the computational effort by several orders of magnitude. We adopted surface waveform inversion with a equal block(2 o×2 o) discretization.

Frequency-domain auto-adapting full waveform inversion with blended source and frequency-group encoding

As a high quality seismic imaging method, full waveform inversion （FWI） can accurately reconstruct the physical parameter model for the subsurface medium. However, application of the FWI in seismic data processing is computationally expensive, especially for the three-dimension complex medium inversion. Introducing blended source technology into the frequency-domain FWI can greatly reduce the computational burden and improve the efficiency of the inversion. However, this method has two issues： first, crosstalk noise is caused by interference between the sources involved in the encoding, resulting in an inversion result with some artifacts; second, it is more sensitive to ambient noise compared to conventional FWI, therefore noisy data results in a poor inversion. This paper introduces a frequency-group encoding method to suppress crosstalk noise, and presents a frequency- domain auto-adapting FWI based on source-encoding technology. The conventional FWI method and source-encoding based FWI method are combined using an auto-adapting mechanism. This improvement can both guarantee the quality of the inversion result and maximize the inversion efficiency.

Cauchy prior distribution-based AVO elastic parameter estimation via weakly nonlinear waveform inversion

Cauchy priori distribution-based Bayesian AVO reflectivity inversion may lead to sparse estimates that are sensitive to large reflectivities. For the inversion, the computation of the covariance matrix and regularized terms requires prior estimation of model parameters, which makes the iterative inversion weakly nonlinear. At the same time, the relations among the model parameters are assumed linear. Furthermore, the reflectivities, the results of the inversion, or the elastic parameters with cumulative error recovered by integrating reflectivities are not well suited for detecting hydrocarbons and fuids. In contrast, in Bayesian linear AVO inversion, the elastic parameters can be directly extracted from prestack seismic data without linear assumptions for the model parameters. Considering the advantages of the abovementioned methods, the Bayesian AVO reflectivity inversion process is modified and Cauchy distribution is explored as a prior probability distribution and the time-variant covariance is also considered. Finally, we propose a new method for the weakly nonlinear AVO waveform inversion. Furthermore, the linear assumptions are abandoned and elastic parameters, such as P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and density, can be directly recovered from seismic data especially for interfaces with large reflectivities. Numerical analysis demonstrates that all the elastic parameters can be estimated from prestack seismic data even when the signal-to-noise ratio of the seismic data is low.

Reflection-based traveltime and waveform inversion with second-order optimization

Reflection-based inversion that aims to reconstruct the low-to-intermediate wavenumbers of the subsurface model, can be a complementary to refraction-data-driven full-waveform inversion(FWI), especially for the deep target area where diving waves cannot be acquired at the surface. Nevertheless, as a typical nonlinear inverse problem, reflection waveform inversion may easily suffer from the cycleskipping issue and have a slow convergence rate, if gradient-based first-order optimization methods are used. To improve the accuracy and convergence rate, we introduce the Hessian operator into reflection traveltime inversion(RTI) and reflection waveform inversion(RWI) in the framework of second-order optimization. A practical two-stage workflow is proposed to build the velocity model, in which Gauss-Newton RTI is first applied to mitigate the cycle-skipping problem and then Gauss-Newton RWI is employed to enhance the model resolution. To make the Gauss-Newton iterations more efficiently and robustly for large-scale applications, we introduce proper preconditioning for the Hessian matrix and design appropriate strategies to reduce the computational costs. The example of a real dataset from East China Sea demonstrates that the cascaded Hessian-based RTI and RWI have good potential to improve velocity model building and seismic imaging, especially for the deep targets.

Three-dimensional frequency-domain full waveform inversion based on the nearly-analytic discrete method

The nearly analytic discrete(NAD)method is a kind of finite difference method with advantages of high accuracy and stability.Previous studies have investigated the NAD method for simulating wave propagation in the time-domain.This study applies the NAD method to solving three-dimensional(3D)acoustic wave equations in the frequency-domain.This forward modeling approach is then used as the“engine”for implementing 3D frequency-domain full waveform inversion(FWI).In the numerical modeling experiments,synthetic examples are first given to show the superiority of the NAD method in forward modeling compared with traditional finite difference methods.Synthetic 3D frequency-domain FWI experiments are then carried out to examine the effectiveness of the proposed methods.The inversion results show that the NAD method is more suitable than traditional methods,in terms of computational cost and stability,for 3D frequency-domain FWI,and represents an effective approach for inversion of subsurface model structures.

Genetic algorithm in seismic waveform inversion and its application in deep seismic sounding data interpretation

A genetic algorithm of body waveform inversion is presented for better understanding of crustal and upper mantle structures with deep seismic sounding （DSS） waveform data. General reflection and transmission synthetic seismogram algorithm, which is capable of calculating the response of thin alternating high and low velocity layers, is applied as a solution for forward modeling, and the genetic algorithm is used to find the optimal solution of the inverse problem. Numerical tests suggest that the method has the capability of resolving low-velocity layers, thin alternating high and low velocity layers, and noise suppression. Waveform inversion using P-wave records from Zeku, Xiahe and Lintao shots in the seismic wide-angle reflection/refraction survey along northeastern Qinghai-Xizang （Tibeteau） Plateau has revealed fine structures of the bottom of the upper crust and alternating layers in the middle/lower crust and topmost upper mantle.

Sparse constrained encoding multi-source full waveform inversion method based on K-SVD dictionary learning

Full waveform inversion(FWI)is an extremely important velocity-model-building method.However,it involves a large amount of calculation,which hindsers its practical application.The multi-source technology can reduce the number of forward modeling shots during the inversion process,thereby improving the efficiency.However,it introduces crossnoise problems.In this paper,we propose a sparse constrained encoding multi-source FWI method based on K-SVD dictionary learning.The phase encoding technology is introduced to reduce crosstalk noise,whereas the K-SVD dictionary learning method is used to obtain the basis of the transformation according to the characteristics of the inversion results.The multiscale inversion method is adopted to further enhance the stability of FWI.Finally,the synthetic subsag model and the Marmousi model are set to test the effectiveness of the newly proposed method.Analysis of the results suggest the following:(1)The new method can effectively reduce the computational complexity of FWI while ensuring inversion accuracy and stability;(2)The proposed method can be combined with the time-domain multi-scale FWI strategy flexibly to further avoid the local minimum and to improve the stability of inversion,which is of significant importance for the inversion of the complex model.

Optimization method of fi rst-arrival waveform inversion based on the L-BFGS algorithm

The fi rst arrival waveform inversion(FAWI)has a strong nonlinearity due to the objective function using L2 parametrization.When the initial velocity is not accurate,the inversion can easily fall into local minima.In the full waveform inversion method,adding a cross-correlation function to the objective function can eff ectively reduce the nonlinearity of the inversion process.In this paper,the nonlinearity of this process is reduced by introducing the correlation objective function into the FAWI and by deriving the corresponding gradient formula.We then combine the first-arrival wave travel-time tomography with the FAWI to form a set of inversion processes.This paper uses the limited memory Broyden-Fletcher-Goldfarb-Shanno(L-BFGS)algorithm to improve the computational effi ciency of inversion and solve the problem of the low effi ciency of the FAWI method.The overthrust model and fi eld data test show that the method used in this paper can eff ectively reduce the nonlinearity of inversion and improve the inversion calculation effi ciency at the same time.

Time Domain Full Waveform Inversion Based on Gradient Preconditioning with an Angle-Dependent Weighting Factor

There are lots of low wavenumber noises in the gradients of time domain full waveform inversion(FWI),which can seriously reduce the accuracy and convergence speed of FWI.Thus,we introduce an angle-dependent weighting factor to precondition the gradients so as to suppress the low wavenumber noises when the multi-scale FWI is implemented in the high frequency.Model experiments show that the FWI based on the gradient preconditioning with an angle-dependent weighting factor has faster convergence speed and higher inversion accuracy than the conventional FWI.The tests on real marine seismic data show that this method can adapt to the FWI of field data,and provide high-precision velocity models for the actual data processing.

Crustal velocity structure of central Gansu Province from regional seismic waveform inversion using firework algorithm

The firework algorithm（FWA） is a novel swarm intelligence-based method recently proposed for the optimization of multi-parameter, nonlinear functions. Numerical waveform inversion experiments using a synthetic model show that the FWA performs well in both solution quality and efficiency. We apply the FWA in this study to crustal velocity structure inversion using regional seismic waveform data of central Gansu on the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Seismograms recorded from the moment magnitude（MW） 5.4 Minxian earthquake enable obtaining an average crustal velocity model for this region. We initially carried out a series of FWA robustness tests in regional waveform inversion at the same earthquake and station positions across the study region,inverting two velocity structure models, with and without a low-velocity crustal layer; the accuracy of our average inversion results and their standard deviations reveal the advantages of the FWA for the inversion of regional seismic waveforms. We applied the FWA across our study area using three component waveform data recorded by nine broadband permanent seismic stations with epicentral distances ranging between 146 and 437 km. These inversion results show that the average thickness of the crust in this region is 46.75 km, while thicknesses of the sedimentary layer, and the upper, middle, and lower crust are 3.15,15.69, 13.08, and 14.83 km, respectively. Results also show that the P-wave velocities of these layers and the upper mantle are 4.47, 6.07, 6.12, 6.87, and 8.18 km/s,respectively.

Studies on quasi-Newton methods in timedomain multiscale full waveform inversion

The time-domain multiscale full waveform inversion(FWI)mitigates the influence of the local minima problem in nonlinear inversion via sequential inversion using different frequency components of seismic data.The quasi-Newton methods avoid direct computation of the inverse Hessian matrix,which reduces the amount of computation and storage requirement.A combination of the two methods can improve inversion accuracy and efficiency.However,the quasi-Newton methods in time-domain multiscale FWI still cannot completely solve the problem where the inversion is trapped in local minima.We first analyze the reasons why the quasi-Newton Davidon–Fletcher–Powell and Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno methods likely fall into the local minima using numerical experiments.During seismic-wave propagation,the amplitude decreases with the geometric diffusion,resulting in the concentration of the gradient of the velocity model in the shallow part,and the deep velocity cannot be corrected.Thus,the inversion falls into the local minima.To solve this problem,we introduce a virtual-source precondition to remove the influence of geometric diffusion.Thus,the model velocities in the deep and shallow parts can be simultaneously completely corrected,and the inversion can more stably converge to the global minimum.After the virtual-source precondition is implemented,the problem in which the quasi-Newton methods likely fall into the local minima is solved.However,problems remain,such as incorrect search direction after a certain number of iterations and failure of the objective function to further decrease.Therefore,we further modify the process of timedomain multiscale FWI based on virtual-source preconditioned quasi-Newton methods by resetting the inverse of the approximate Hessian matrix.Thus,the validity of the search direction of the quasi-Newton methods is guaranteed.Numerical tests show that the modified quasi-Newton methods can obtain more reasonable inversion results,and they converge faster and entail lesser computational resources than the gradient method.

Visco-acoustic transmission waveform inversion of velocity structure in space-frequency domain

According to the least square criterion of minimizing the misfit between modeled and observed data, this paper provides a preconditioned gradient method to invert the visco-acoustic velocity structure on the basis of using sparse matrix LU factorization technique to directly solve the visco-acoustic wave forward problem in space-frequency domain. Numerical results obtained in an inclusion model inversion and a layered homogeneous model inversion demonstrate that different scale media have their own frequency responses, and the strategy of using low-frequency inverted result as the starting model in the high-frequency inversion can greatly reduce the non-tmiqueness of their solutions. It can also be observed in the experiments that the fast convergence of the algorithm can be achieved by using diagonal elements of Hessian matrix as the preconditioned operator, which fully incorporates the advantage of quadratic convergence of Gauss-Newton method.

Full waveform inversion based on improved MLQN method

Full waveform inversion( FWI) is a challenging data-fitting procedure between model wave field value and theoretical wave field value. The essence of FWI is an optimization problem,and therefore,it is important to study optimization method. The study is based on conventional Memoryless quasi-Newton( MLQN)method. Because the Conjugate Gradient method has ultra linear convergence,the authors propose a method by using Fletcher-Reeves( FR) conjugate gradient information to improve the search direction of the conventional MLQN method. The improved MLQN method not only includes the gradient information and model information,but also contains conjugate gradient information. And it does not increase the amount of calculation during every iterative process. Numerical experiment shows that compared with conventional MLQN method,the improved MLQN method can guarantee the computational efficiency and improve the inversion precision.

Full waveform inversion with spectral conjugategradient method

Spectral conjugate gradient method is an algorithm obtained by combination of spectral gradient method and conjugate gradient method,which is characterized with global convergence and simplicity of spectral gradient method,and small storage of conjugate gradient method.Besides,the spectral conjugate gradient method was proved that the search direction at each iteration is a descent direction of objective function even without relying on any line search method.Spectral conjugate gradient method is applied to full waveform inversion for numerical tests on Marmousi model.The authors give a comparison on numerical results obtained by steepest descent method,conjugate gradient method and spectral conjugate gradient method,which shows that the spectral conjugate gradient method is superior to the other two methods.