3D viscoacoustic reverse time migration with attenuation compensation

Ali Fathalian, Daniel O. Trad, Kristopher A. Innanen

Processes of attenuation and dispersion always degrading the resolution of migrated images. To improve the image resolution, we have developed a new approach for the numerical solution of the 3D viscoacoustic wave equation in the time domain and we developed an associated reverse time migration (Q-RTM) method. The main feature of the Q-RTM approach is compensation of attenuation effects in seismic images during migration by separation of amplitude attenuation and phase dispersion terms. In the Q-RTM implementation, attenuation and dispersion compensated operators are constructed by reversing the sign of the amplitude attenuation and keeping the sign of dispersion operator unchanged. The Q-RTM approach is tested on a 3D model. We validate and examine the response of this approach by using it within an RTM scheme adjusted to compensate for attenuation. Our 3D numerical test focus on the amplitude recovery and resolution of the Q-RTM images as well as the interface locations. Numerical results show that the Q-RTM approach produced higher resolution images with recovered amplitude compared to the non-compensated RTM.