The Conclusion

Using the acoustic wave equation for VTI media, I generated synthetic data for a transversely isotropic medium in a complex model. This VTI model has an NMO and vertical velocity given by the original Marmousi velocity model. The $\eta$ model, built with same layering characteristics as the Marmousi velocity model, ranges between 0 and 0.274. The similarity in configuration and acquisition geometry of these VTI Marmousi data and the heavily processed original IFP data simplifies the transport of processing tools to be applied to this new data set. Synthetic sections show the large impact of anisotropy on wave propagation. Anisotropy, for example, results in faster traveltimes at the far offsets. In conventional isotropic processing, such faster traveltimes are often interpreted as higher NMO (and vertical) velocity, and therefore, result in an overestimation of depth.