Acoustic wave-equation traveltime and waveform inversion of crosshole seismic data

A hybrid wave-equation traveltime and waveform inversion method is presented that reconstructs the interwell velocity distribution from crosshole seismic data. This inversion method, designated as WTW, retains the advantages of both full wave inversion and traveltime inversion; ie, it is characterized by reasonably fast convergence which is somewhat independent of the initial model, and it can resolve detailed features of the velocity model. The WTW method is applied to synthetic data and field crosshole data collected at Friendswood, Texas. Results show that the WTW tomograms are much richer in structural information relative to the traveltime tomograms. -from Authors