Microseismic imaging using a source-independent full-waveform inversion method

Using full waveform inversion (FWI) to locate microseismic and image microseismic events allows for an automatic process (free of picking) that utilizes the full wavefield. However, waveform inversion of microseismic events faces incredible nonlinearity due to the unknown source location (space) and function (time). We develop a source independent FWI of microseismic events to invert for the source image, source function and the velocity model. It is based on convolving reference traces with the observed and modeled data to mitigate the effect of an unknown source ignition time. The adjoint-state method is used to derive the gradient for the source image, source function and velocity updates. The extended image for source wavelet in z axis is extracted to check the accuracy of the inverted source image and velocity model. Also the angle gather is calculated to see if the velocity model is correct. By inverting for all the source image, source wavelet and the velocity model, the proposed method produces good estimates of the source location, ignition time and the background velocity for part of the SEG overthrust model.