Co-authors: Zhan Fu, Brad Wray and Hao Shen, CGG

Reflection-based full waveform inversion (RFWI) is increasingly used to recover long wavelengths of the background velocity model and provide updates that extend beyond the reach of diving waves. In our case study, we use an RFWI method that first updates the density using the high-wavenumber components of the decomposed full waveform inversion (FWI) gradient and then updates the velocity using the low-wavenumber components. We show on a deep water example from the Mexican side of the Perdido fold belt that RFWI improves the velocity inside sediment mini-basins and thus the interpretability of the underlying salt. We also apply this method for the intra-salt and subsalt velocity updates and show how it can improve imaging of the deep targets.

Speaker Biography: Katarina Jonke, CGG
Katarina Jonke received her engineering degree in Applied Geophysics from the University of Belgrade (2000) and her Master’s degree in Geophysics from the University of Houston (2004). Katarina started her career with NIS Naftagas in Serbia as a geophysicist in land acquisition crews. She joined CGG in 2005 and currently holds the position of a Senior Imaging Team Leader. She works predominantly on deep-water GOM projects with a focus on velocity model building, salt tectonics, and subsalt imaging.