EAGE/PESGB Short Course

An Introduction to Migration and Velocity Model Building

21st February 2018

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Introduction video

A short version of this course has been recorded as an E-Lecture. Watching this video will give you a clear introduction of what the course is about and it will help you to prepare yourself if you are going to attend it!

Course Description

The course will begin with a review of migration theory, emphasizing those aspects that affect our ability to build a velocity model of the subsurface and indicating when time migration should be replaced with depth migration (and what specific type of depth migration should be used). Ray theory and wave theory will be mentioned, in terms of how the scale length of a velocity anomaly versus the wavelength of the sound illuminating interacts. We will then cover the motivations for building detailed velocity models and briefly discuss the inherent limitations on our ability to build a detailed model. A review of anisotropy and of the principles of tomographic inversion will be given and current-day practice will be covered, exemplified via several case-studies. The approach will not be mathematical but rather will try to concentrate on an intuitive understanding of the principles and demonstrate them via case histories. This course will try to provide a complete overview but some topics such as VSP and multi-component data will not be covered.

Objectives & Outline

Course objectives
The course objective is to provide the participants a firm understanding of the processes and assumptions involved in building velocity-depth models and of the limitations of various migration algorithms

Course outline
Why do we need a detailed velocity model?

  • Review of migration schemes
  • The limitations of time migration and benefits of depth migration
  • Snell’s law and how to ignore it
  • How does depth migration differ from time migration?
  • Is depth migration always necessary?
  • How accurate does an image need to be?

How detailed can we get?

  • Sources of uncertainty
  • Non-uniqueness and ambiguity
  • Limits on resolution

Model building through the ages

  • The iterative multidisciplinary approach
  • Tomographic update
  • Anisotropy versus heterogeneity (and other higher order moveout effects)

Current industrial practice

  • What does tomography need to accomplish?
  • Iterative model update
  • Layered, gridded and hybrid tomography
  • Complex water layers
  • Near-surface velocity anomalies

The Future: emerging R&D directions

  • Wavepath tomography
  • Waveform inversion

About the instructor

Ian Jones received a joint honours BSc in Physics with Geology from the University of Manchester, UK, in 1977, an MSc in Seismology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and a PhD in Geophysical Signal Processing from the University of British Columbia, Canada. After working for ‘Inverse Theory & Applications Inc’. in Canada for two years, he joined CGG, where for 15 years he was involved in R&D in the London and Paris offices. Since 2000 he has been with GX Technology, as a Senior Geophysical Advisor in their London office.

He has published various articles on imaging related topics, and was co-organizer of the 1998 SEG-EAGE summer research workshop entitled ‘Depth Imaging of Reservoir Attributes’, the 2002 EAGE workshop on ‘Kirchhoff versus Wave Equation Imaging’, and the 2002 EAGE workshop on ‘High Resolution Velocity Estimation’. He was the organizer & instructor of the 2004 & 2008 SPG one-day workshops on Depth Imaging.

Ian Jones’ current interests include velocity model building and migration, and his most current activity included co-editing the SEG Geophysics Reprints series volumes ‘Classics of Elastic Wave Theory’ and ‘Pre-Stack Depth Migration and Velocity Model Building’.

He is a member of the SEG, EAGE and the PESGB and serves on the SEG editorial board and the EAGE technical program committee. Ian Jones is a well recognised geoscientist and he received numerous awards including EAGE’s Anstey Medal in 2003 for contributions to the depth imaging literature.

Recommended Reading

  • Jones, I.F, 2014, Tutorial: migration imaging conditions. First Break, accepted.
  • Jones, I.F, and Davison, I., 2014, Seismic imaging in and around salt bodies. SEG Interpretation, 2, no.4, SL1-SL20.
  • Jones, I.F, 2013, Tutorial: The seismic response to strong vertical velocity change. First Break, 31, no.6., 43-54.
  • Jones, I.F, 2013, Tutorial: Transforms, orthogonality, eigenvectors, and eigenvalues. First Break, 31, no.1., 51-61.
  • Jones, I.F, 2012, Tutorial: Incorporating near-surface velocity anomalies in pre-stack depth migration models. First Break, 30, no.3,
  • Jones, I.F, 2010, Tutorial: ray-based tomography. First Break, 28, no.2, 45-52
  • Jones, I. F., 2008, A modeling study of pre-processing considerations for reverse-time migration: Geophysics,. 73, NO. 6; T99—T106.
  • Fruehn, J.K., I. F. Jones, V. Valler, P. Sangvai, A. Biswal, & M. Mathur, 2008, Resolving Near-Seabed Velocity Anomalies: Deep Water Offshore Eastern India: Geophysics, 73, No.5, VE235-VE241.
  • Jones, I. F., 2008, Effects of pre-processing on reverse time migration — a North Sea study: First Break, 26, no.6, 73-80.
  • Jones, I.F., Sugrue, M.J., Hardy, P.B., 2007, Hybrid Gridded Tomography. First Break, 25, no.4, 15-21.
  • Farmer, P., Jones, I.F., Zhou, H., Bloor, R., Goodwin, M.C., 2006, Application of Reverse Time Migration to Complex Imaging Problems. First Break, 24, no.9, 65-73.
  • Jones, I.F., 2003, A review of 3D preSDM velocity model building techniques First Break, 21, no.3, 45-58.
  • Jones, I.F., Fruehn, J., 2003, Factors affecting frequency content in 3D preSDM imaging, : The Leading Edge, 22, no.2,.128-134.

Venue Information

Venue information

Venue name:

PESGB Croydon Office

Venue address:

7th Floor, No.1 Croydon, 12-16 Addiscombe Road, Croydon, Surrey, CR0 0XT, United Kingdom