Frequency-domain direct waveform inversion based on perturbation theory

Abstract

A direct waveform inversion based on perturbation theory is proposed to delineate a subsurface velocity structure from seismic data. This technique can directly compute the difference between the actual subsurface velocity and an initial guess of the velocity, while full waveform inversion updates the velocity model in the directions of reducing the data residual. Unlike full waveform inversion using the steepest descent method, the direct waveform inversion does not require a proper step length to iteratively update the velocity model. We present an algorithm for the waveform inversion method in the frequency domain and numerical examples demonstrating how the inversion method can reconstruct subsurface velocity structures using surface seismic data. The time-domain seismograms synthesized in the inversion procedure match the corresponding shot-gather seismograms of field data. © The Authors 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.