Joint PP and PS AVO inversion based on Bayes theorem

Abstract

Based on the Aki-Richards approximate equations for reflection coefficients and Bayes theorem, we developed an inversion method to estimate P- and S-wave velocity contrasts and density contrast from combined PP and PS data. This method assumes that the parameters satisfy a normal distribution and introduces the covariance matrix to describe the degree of correlation between the parameters and thus to improve the inversion stability. Then, we suppose that the parameter sequence is subject to the Cauchy distribution and employs another matrix Q to describe the parameter sequence sparseness to improve the inversion result resolution. Tests on both synthetic and real multi-component data prove that this method is valid, efficient, more stable, and more accurate compared to methods using PP data only. © 2011 Editorial Office of Applied Geophysics and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.