Interval velocity estimation with event picking

Carlos A. Cunha Filho

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ABSTRACT

Most interval-velocity estimation methods are formulated as an iterative optimization scheme which requires an initial model to start the inversion. In addition, ray-tracing or approximate equations are used to relate the model to the objective function. For the horizontally-layered earth, it is possible to directly relate the interval velocity between two interfaces to the difference in shapes of the two reflected wavefronts corresponding to those interfaces. I have devised a velocity estimation method based on this relation, using beam-stacks to define a probability density function for the horizontal slowness, and an automatic picking algorithm to define the reflection events. The results show that good resolution is achieved when the method is applied to synthetic and real data.