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PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Thirty-Third Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2009

3-D TOMOGRAPHIC AMPLITUDE INVERSION FOR COMPENSATING TRANSMISSION

LOSSES IN THE OVERBURDEN

Barry Hung*
Kefeng Xin*
Sergey Birdus*
James Sun*

ABSTRACT difficult. This in turn affects the ability to accurately

A tomographic inversion approach using prestack
depth migrated common image gathers is utilized to
compensate reflection data for amplitude loss
caused by transmission anomalies, such as shallow
gas, in the overburden. The approach has the
advantage of estimating transmission losses from
anywhere within the overburden using the actual
seismic raypaths. It includes the following
procedures:
(1) picking events on the CIGs, measuring their
amplitudes and estimating the dip fields on the
migrated stacked volume;
(2) defining a represented model and updating the
amplitude perturbations in the model through
tomographic inversion;
(3) using raytracing to calculate the cumulative
amplitude scaling factors from the perturbations
and scale up the prestack migrated data
accordingly.
Examples show that the method can mitigate
amplitude attenuation caused by transmission
anomalies and should be considered as one of the
processes for amplitude preserving processing that
is important for AVO analysis when transmission
anomalies are present.
INTRODUCTION
Spatial variations in the transmission properties of
the overburden cause seismic amplitude distortions
on deeper horizons and hence pose problems to the
AVO analysis. One of the common causes of these
transmission anomalies is gas within shallow
sediment. This induces anomalous amplitude decay
in zones beneath the gas anomaly, often making the
identification and interpretation of deeper reflectors
* CGG VeritaS
predict reservoir properties. Thus, there is a need to
compensate the amplitude loss caused by this kind
of transmission anomalies.
Earlier approaches of mitigating the problem of low
amplitudes due to transmission loss relied on the
near-surface effects (Taner and Koehler, 1981;
Brzostowski and McMechan, 1992). However, for
deeper anomalies, this kind of surface-consistent
algorithms or methods is not applicable. Harlan
(1994) identified common-reflection points derived
from NMO-corrected data to reconstruct their
raypaths so as to minimize the error between the
picked and modeled amplitudes by inversion. The
method used by González and Chambers (1994)
does not require any a priori assumptions about the
amplitudes of reflections from a horizon but uses
the amplitudes estimated within short time windows
from NMO-corrected data to solve for amplitude
compensation factors. Both approaches use NMO-
corrected data to extract some information.
However, to maintain the amplitude fidelity, the
analysis should be performed on migrated data
using amplitude preserving migration methods (e.g.,
Notfors et al, 2002). Deal et al (2002) demonstrated
a deterministic process using turning ray to generate
a near-surface attenuation model to compensate
amplitude loss due to shallow gas. Even though the
method does not require any a priori knowledge of
deeper horizon amplitudes, it characterizes near
surface only amplitude attenuation and needs far
offsets to capture the turning rays.
In this paper, we present a generalized method for
estimating and compensating transmission losses
that are not restricted to originate from near surface.
The analysis is performed on the migrated data and
based on the tomographic velocity updating
algorithm described by Zhou et al (2003). Although
our approach requires a priori information about
horizons, we do not consider this as a significant
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disadvantage because similar information is needed
by velocity updating anyway. In the following, we
describe the implementation of our method using
common image gathers (CIGs). We then apply this
method on synthetic and real data to demonstrate its
ability to compensate the amplitude loss caused by
transmission anomalies.
METHOD
The essence of our approach is to obtain the
amplitude perturbations in a represented model by
back-projecting the amplitude variations from 3D
prestack depth migrated data along the traced
raypaths and then minimizing the amplitude
discrepancies in CIGs. After obtaining the
amplitude perturbations, they can be used for
mitigating the amplitude attenuation due to the
transmission loss. Thus, our implementation
includes:
(1) picking events on the CIGs, measuring their
amplitudes and estimating the dip fields on the
migrated stacked volume;
(2) defining a represented model and updating the
amplitude perturbations in the model through
tomographic inversion;
(3) using raytracing to calculate the cumulative
amplitude scaling factors from the perturbations
and scale up the prestack migrated data
accordingly.
For step (1), as amplitude tomography is normally
carried out after the velocity analysis, the data picks
and dips can be re-used from the velocity
tomography process. Hence, even though this step
requires a priori knowledge of the structures, it can
be skipped in most cases when the velocity analysis
using the same approach has been performed. If that
has not been done, we use the methods described by
Guo et al (2002) to automatically pick the events
and estimate the dips. After that, we measure the
amplitudes along the horizons for different offsets.
These will be used as the reference amplitudes for
the inversion and are measured within a depth
window whose length is wavelet dependent.
Regarding the parameterization model mentioned in
step (2), we use a gridded representation of the
model in this work as gridded models allow us to
obtain very high-resolution solutions. It is also a
natural extension of our work on velocity analysis
as the same gridded model is used in both cases.
After the model is defined and using the picks, dips
and reference amplitudes information from step (1),
the tomographic inversion equation for velocity
update as described by Zhou et al (2003) can be
modified for tomographic amplitude correction with
this equation:
Fm = a
(1)
where F is the Frechet derivative matrix, m is the
vector of attenuation perturbations and a is the
vector containing the logarithmic amplitude ratios.
For a particular offset, the elements of the vector a,
aijk, can be obtained as follows:
Aijk = Ao exp(- β ijk ⋅ l ijk )
Ao
⇒ a ijk ≡ log( ) = β ijk ⋅ l ijk (2)
Aijk
where Aijk is the amplitude measured at the ijkth 3D
gridded cell, Ao is the reference amplitude of a
particular event, βijk is the attenuation factor at the
ijkth gridded cell and lijk is the length of the raypath
going through the ijkth gridded cell. Hence, equation
(1) includes all the information from all the offsets
and picked horizons of the CIGs. It is not limited to
near surface and it works on the migrated data with
actual dips.
With appropriate preconditioning in the data and
model space (Guo et al, 2002), the vector m can be
solved by standard methods such as least-squares
conjugate gradient method. The resulting βijk is then
used to compensate for the attenuation occurred in
the ijkth cell with a scaling factor of
exp( β ijk ⋅ l ijk ) . Therefore, by cumulating the
amplitude changes occurred at all the cells in which
a ray has passed through, the new amplitude of a
seismic trace with the corresponding raypath can be
obtained.
RESULTS
A synthetic test was first carried out to verify our
approach. Figure 1 displays one subline of the 3D
model that was used in the test. Five flat events with
different reflectivities are present in the model with
the spatially varying transmission losses embedded
between the first and the second horizons. The
losses are constant along the subline direction.
Figure 2 shows a couple of CMP gathers, with an
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offset range of 0 to 4.5km, obtained from the
modeling using shots and receivers that have 25m
spacing and constant velocity of 2000 ms-1. It can
be observed that at locations where the raypaths do
not pass through the transmission anomalies, such
as the location indicated by Figure 2(a), the
amplitudes of the events do not vary with the offset.
On the contrary, at locations where the raypaths
pass through the transmission anomalies, the
amplitudes of the events below the absorption are
no longer constant at different offsets. This is
illustrated by a selected location depicted in Figure
2(b).
The data was then migrated with an amplitude
preserving algorithm (Notfors, 2002) and the
resulting CIGs of one subline are shown in Figure 3.
It can be seen from the horizons that amplitude
anomalous streaks, similar to those observed by
Harlan (1994), appear over offset and midpoint.
Using the above-mentioned method to apply on the
CIGs to estimate the transmission anomalies, we
obtained a 3D volume of estimated transmission
anomalies. Figure 4 displays one subline of the
transmission anomalies volume. It can be observed
that, apart from the boundary effects that are related
to the size of the cells used in the calculation, the
transmission anomalies are well reconstructed. The
estimated anomalies can then be used to mitigate
the amplitude attenuation. Figure 5 shows the CIGs
after the compensation using our amplitude
tomography method. The amplitude anomalous
streaks that appeared in Figure 3 have clearly been
removed. The effect of the compensation on AVO
is illustrated in Figure 6 where the amplitudes,
before and after our amplitude tomography, of the
second and fifth events are plotted against the
offset. While the amplitudes of the events are
almost restored to their original levels, indicated by
the solid lines, after the correction, the transmission
anomalies will have adverse effects on the AVO
analysis if they are left uncorrected.
A real data set was then tested with our method.
Figure 7 displays the migrated stacked volume with
four picked horizons. Amplitude dimming caused
by gas in shallow region was observed in those
areas circled by the dotted lines. The amplitude loss
makes it difficult for the reflectors to be identified
and interpreted for the AVO analysis. Using the
four picked events from the CIGs to perform the
amplitude tomographic inversion, we obtained the
estimated transmission anomalies. Figure 8 shows
the transmission anomalies extracted from one
subline. These correlate well with the velocity
pattern, as shown in Figure 9. The estimated
transmission anomalies were then utilized to
mitigate the amplitude loss. Figure 10 depicts the
compensation result where it can be seen that the
amplitudes of the reflectors below the first horizon
are nicely corrected. This is more evident when
viewing the depth slices from Figure 11 as the
amplitudes along the horizon are more well-
balanced after the correction.
CONCLUSIONS
We have developed and demonstrated an inversion
method based on a post-migration common-image-
gather tomography for correcting amplitude
attenuation caused by transmission anomalies that
can originate from anywhere within the overburden.
Synthetic and real data results show that our method
can be used to compensate for the amplitude loss
associated with transmission anomalies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank OMV for providing us with the data and
CGGVeritas for the permission to publish this work.
REFERENCES
Brzostowski M. and McMechan G., 1992, 3-D
tomographic imaging of near-surface seismic
velocity and attenuation: Geophysics, 57, 396-403.
Deal M., Matteucci G. and Kim Y., 2002, Turning
ray amplitude inversion: mitigating amplitude
attenuation due to shallow gas: 72nd Meeting, SEG,
Expanded Abstracts, 2078-2081.
González A. and Chambers R., 1994, Compensation
seismic amplitude for transmission losses in the
overburden: 64th Meeting, SEG, Expanded
Abstracts, 1501-1504.
Guo J., Zhou H., Young J. and Gray S., 2002,
Toward accurate velocity. models by 3D
tomographic velocity analysis: 64th Meeting,
EAGE, B024.
Harlan W., 1994, Tomographic correction of
transmission distortions in reflected seismic
amplitudes: 64th Meeting, SEG, Expanded
Abstracts, 968-971.
Notfors C., Zhang Y., Karazincir M., Sun J., Hung
B., 2002, Amplitude Preserving v(z) Prestack
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Kirchhoff Migration, Demigration and Modeling:
64th Meeting, EAGE, B011.
Taner M. and Koehler F., 1981, Surface consistent
corrections: Geophysics, 46, 17-22.
Zhou H., Gray S., Young J., Pham D., and Zhang
Y., 2003, Tomographic Residual Curvature
Analysis: The Process and its Components: 73rd
Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 666-669.
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Figure 1 - One subline of the 3D model used in the synthetic test. Five flat events are present in the model.
Transmission anomalies, which are constant along the inline direction, are represented by the
volumes colored in red.

Figure 2 - CMP gathers obtained from the modeling. The left gather, which is from crossline 4500, does
not have raypaths passing through the anomalies as shown in Fig 1.The right gather is from
crossline 5500 which have raypaths passing through the anomalies.
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Figure 3 - CIGs of one subline obtained after migration. Amplitude anomalous streaks are apparent.

Figure 4 - Transmission anomalies estimated by our amplitude tomography method.

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Figure 5 - CIGs of the same subline shown in Fig 3 after amplitude compensation.
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Figure 6 - Plot of amplitude vs offset. The amplitudes of the second and fifth events are indicated by the
black and red curves respectively. The dotted lines and the circles indicate the amplitudes before
and after correction respectively. The solid lines are the original amplitudes.
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Figure 7 - Migrated stacked volume showing amplitude-dimming areas indicated by the dotted circles.
Four horizons, pointed out by the white arrows, are picked for inversion. Data courtesy of OMV

Figure 8 - A subline display of the estimated transmission anomalies.

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Figure 9 - The corresponding velocity pattern of Figure 8.

Figure 10 - Result after the application of our amplitude tomography method. The amplitudes are now
restored in the dimming areas.
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Figure 11 - Depth slices along the second horizon: (a) before the amplitude correction; (b) after the
amplitude correction.