Comparison of numerical dispersion for finite-difference algorithms in transversely isotropic media with a vertical symmetry axis

Abstract

Numerical simulation of the wave equation is widely used to synthesize seismograms theoretically and is also the basis of the reverse time migration and full waveform inversion. For the finite difference methods, grid dispersion often exists because of the discretization of the time and the spatial derivatives in the wave equation. How to suppress the grid dispersion is therefore a key problem for finite difference (FD) approaches. The FD operators for the space derivatives are usually obtained in the space domain. However, the wave equations are discretized in the time and space directions simultaneously. So it would be better to design the FD operators in the time-space domain. We improved the time-space domain method for obtaining the FD operators in an acoustic vertically transversely isotropic (VTI) media so as to cover a much wider range of frequencies. Dispersion analysis and seismic numerical simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.