A fast algorithm for 3D azimuthally anisotropic velocity scan

Published as Geophysical Prospecting, 63, 368-377 (2015)

A fast algorithm for 3D azimuthally anisotropic velocity scan

Jingwei Hu, Sergey Fomel, and Lexing Ying

Abstract:

Conventional velocity scan can be computationally expensive for large-size seismic data, particularly when the presence of anisotropy requires multiparameter estimation. We introduce a fast algorithm for 3D azimuthally anisotropic velocity scan, which is a generalization of the previously proposed 2D butterfly algorithm for hyperbolic Radon transform. To compute the semblance in a two-parameter residual moveout domain, the numerical complexity of our algorithm is roughly $O(N^3\log N)$ as opposed to $O(N^5)$ of the straightforward velocity scan, with $N$ being representative of the number of points in either dimension of data space or parameter space. We provide both synthetic and field-data examples to illustrate the efficiency and accuracy of the algorithm.