Source-receiver wavefield interferometry in scattering media

Abstract

Seismic or wavefield interferometry refers to a set of methods that synthesize wavefields between pairs of receivers, pairs of sources, or a source and a receiver, using wavefields propagating from and to surrounding boundaries of sources and/or receivers. Starting from cross-correlations of ambient seismic noise recordings, which provide the signal between two receivers as if one of them had been an active source, interferometric methods developed rapidly within the last decade, revolutionizing the way in which seismic, acoustic, elastic, or electromagnetic waves are used to image and monitor the interior of a medium. Only recently, an explicit link was found between the methods of source-receiver interferometry (SRI) and seismic imaging, a technique widely used in seismic exploration to map diffractors and reflectors in the subsurface, but also in more academic studies investigating, for example, deep crustal processes. This link is particularly interesting because SRI, in contrast to classical imaging schemes, does not rely on the single-scattering assumption but accounts for all multiple-scattering effects in the medium. While first non-linear imaging schemes based on SRI have been proposed, the full potential of the method remains to be explored and a number of open questions concerning, for example, the role of non-physical energy in interferometric wavefield estimates, require further investigation. The aim of this thesis is to gain more insight into the method of source-receiver interferometry in the context of wavefield construction and analysis in multiply scattering media, especially when theoretical requirements of the method (such as complete boundaries of sources and receivers, surrounding the medium of interest) are not met. First I analyse the single diffractor case using partial surface boundaries only. I find that only two out of eight terms of the SRI equation are required to construct a robust estimate of the scattered wavefield, and that one of these two terms is also used in seismic imaging. The other term provides a pseudo-physical estimate of the scattered wave; this is a new type of non-physical energy that emulates the kinematics of a physically scattered wave. I then proceed to a multiple scattering scenario, using the pseudo-physical term to predict the travel times and exact scattering paths of multiply diffracted waves. The presented algorithm is purely data-driven and fully automated and, as a by-product, provides a new tool to isolate primary diffracted waves from a complex multiply diffracted wavefield. Finally, the concept is expanded to multiply reflecting media. In reflection seismic data, multiply reflected waves should be removed prior to migration in order to avoid artefacts in the seismic image. I demonstrate how internal multiples can be estimated and attenuated using pseudo-physical energy constructed from SRI. Moreover, an explicit link is derived between the internal-multiple equation based on SRI and the internal-multiple equation derived from the inverse-scattering series (ISS), currently the most capable algorithm for internal-multiple attenuation. Using the insight provided by the SRI approach, I suggest an alternative equation that estimates internal multiples more effciently compared to the current method. Overall, this thesis improves our understanding of how physical, non-physical, and pseudo-physical wavefields are constructed in SRI, how new information about multiply scattered wavefields can be inferred, and how SRI relates to other methods of wavefield analysis, in particular seismic imaging and the ISS.