Iterative inversion of data from simultaneous geophysical sources

• US 8,428,925 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2012
• Issued: 04/23/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation)
• Inventors: Krebs, Jerome R., Anderson, John E., Neelamani, Ramesh, Jing, Charlie, Hinkley, David, Dickens, Thomas A., Krohn, Christine E., Traynin, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Rivas, Omar Fernandez
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cothran, Bernard E
• Application Number:
  US13/345,314
• Publication Number:
  US 20120109612A1
• Time in Patent Office: 473 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 703/10
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/28 Processing seismic data, e.g. for interpretation or for event detection G01V1/48 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 2210/67 Wave propagation modeling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

Method for reducing the time needed to perform geophysical inversion by using simultaneous encoded sources in the simulation steps of the inversion process. The geophysical survey data are prepared by encoding (3) a group of source gathers (1), using for each gather a different encoding signature selected from a set (2) of non-equivalent encoding signatures. Then, the encoded gathers are summed (4) by summing all traces corresponding to the same receiver from each gather, resulting in a simultaneous encoded gather. (Alternatively, the geophysical data are acquired from simultaneously encoded sources.) The simulation steps needed for inversion are then calculated using a particular assumed velocity (or other physical property) model (5) and simultaneously activated encoded sources using the same encoding scheme used on the measured data. The result is an updated physical properties model (6) that may be further updated (7) by additional iterations.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for inversion of measured geophysical data to determine a physical properties model for a subsurface region, comprising:

(a) obtaining measured geophysical data from a geophysical survey of the subsurface region;

(b) inverting the measured data by iterative inversion involving simultaneous encoded-source simulation of survey data representing a plurality of survey sources or receivers if source-receiver reciprocity is used, wherein source or receiver signatures in the simulation are encoded, resulting in a simulated simultaneous encoded-source or encoded-receiver gather of geophysical data, the inversion process involving updating an assumed physical properties model to reduce misfit between the simulated simultaneous encoded-source or encoded-receiver gather and a corresponding simultaneous encoded-source or encoded-receiver gather survey data encoded with the same encoding functions used in the simulation;

wherein in one or more of the iterations, different encoding functions are used compared to the preceding iteration; and

(c) downloading the updated physical properties model or saving it to computer storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the measured data comprise two gathers, and each of the two gathers is encoded with a different encoding function selected from a set of non-equivalent encoding functions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the encoding is designed to cause the simultaneous encoded-source or encoded-receiver gather of measured data to sum individual gathers incoherently.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein two generalized source gathers, or generalized receiver gathers if reciprocity is used, are formed by summing point sources from the measured data, and each of the generalized source or receiver gathers is encoded with a different encoding function selected from a set of non-equivalent encoding functions to form the simultaneous encoded-source or encoded-receiver gather of measured data, and the source or receiver signatures that are encoded in the simulation correspond to said generalized sources or receivers.

5. A computer implemented method for iterative inversion of measured geophysical data to determine a physical properties model for a subsurface region, comprising simultaneously simulating encoded gathers of the measured geophysical data, each gather being encoded with a different encoding signature selected from a set of non-equivalent encoding signatures, wherein in some or all of the iterations, different encoding signatures are used compared to the preceding iteration.