True-amplitude linearized waveform inversion with the quasi-elastic wave equation

We present a quasi-elastic wave equation as a function of the pressure variable, which can accurately model PP reflections with elastic amplitude variation with offset effects under the first-order Born approximation. The kinematic part of the quasi-elastic wave equation accurately models the propagation of P waves, whereas the virtual-source part, which models the amplitudes of reflections, is a function of the perturbations of density and Lame parameters lambda and mu . The quasi-elastic wave equation generates a scattering radiation pattern that is exactly the same as that for the elastic wave equation, and only requires the solution of two acoustic wave equations for each shot gather. This means that the quasi-elastic wave equation can be used for true-amplitude linearized waveform inversion (also known as least-squares reverse time migration) of elastic PP reflections, in which the corresponding misfit gradients are with respect to the perturbations of density and the P- and S-wave impedances. The perturbations of elastic parameters are iteratively updated by minimizing the L2-norm of the difference between the recorded PP reflections and the predicted pressure data modeled from the quasi-elastic wave equation. Numerical tests on synthetic and field data indicate that true-amplitude linearized waveform inversion using the quasi-elastic wave equation can account for the elastic PP amplitudes and provide a robust estimate of the perturbations of P- and S-wave impedances and, in some cases, the density. In addition, true-amplitude linearized waveform inversion provides images with a wider bandwidth and fewer artifacts because the PP amplitudes are accurately explained. We also determine the 2D scalar quasi-elastic wave equation for P-SV reflections and the 3D vector equation for PS reflections.