Kirchhoff migration using eikonal-based computation of traveltime source derivatives

The computational efficiency of Kirchhoff-type migration can be enhanced by using accurate traveltime interpolation algorithms. We addressed the problem of interpolating between a sparse source sampling by using the derivative of traveltime with respect to the source location. We adopted a first-order partial differential equation that originates from differentiating the eikonal equation to compute the traveltime source derivatives efficiently and conveniently. Unlike methods that rely on finite-difference estimations, the accuracy of the eikonal-based derivative did not depend on input source sampling. For smooth velocity models, the first-order traveltime source derivatives enabled a cubic Hermite traveltime interpolation that took into consideration the curvatures of local wavefronts and can be straightforwardly incorporated into Kirchhoff antialiasing schemes. We provided an implementation of the proposed method to first-arrival traveltimes by modifying the fast-marching eikonal solver. Several simple synthetic models and a semirecursive Kirchhoff migration of the Marmousi model demonstrated the applicability of the proposed method.