Book Covers Application of Linear Inverse Theory
Seismic Imaging and Inversion: Application of Linear Inverse Theory (ISBN-13: 9781107014909), published in 2012 and co-authored by Robert H. Stolt of ConocoPhillips (retired) and the University of Houston’s Arthur B. Weglein will be published in Chinese.
Cambridge University Press will publish the translation for sale in China with a target publication date of June 2022. The edition will be published in collaboration with the Chinese publisher, Petroleum Industry Press.
The text is the first of a two-volume graduate textbook in seismic physics.
The second volume, Seismic Imaging and Inversion: Application of Direct Non-linear Inverse Theory, also by Weglein and Stolt, is scheduled for publication by Cambridge University Press in December 2022.
Summary of Two-Volume Graduate Textbook
The two-volume set will provide the first comprehensive development, from a single simple starting point, of all the seismic processing methods in the seismic processing chain. That development derives and applies methods that either require subsurface information (Volume I) or do not require subsurface information (Volume II), with the former derived as a special and limiting case of the latter.
The second volume presents the logic, development and application of methods for every link in the seismic processing chain, where subsurface properties are not known, estimated or determined.
These methods include:
- Predicting the reference wave-field and the scattered wave-field, without damaging either
- Source and receiver de-ghosting
- Free surface multiple removal
- Internal multiple attenuation and elimination
- Compensation for absorption and attenuation
- Depth imaging without a velocity model, and
- Non-linear direct parameter estimation
Volume II also presents new linear imaging methods that improve seismic resolution. Those new methods go beyond the industry standard RTM for significant added value for resolution and imaging complex structure, in particular on the low frequency data components. The volume also provides a new non-linear method for performing Q compensation without knowing, estimating or determining Q. The latter advance recovers the high frequency data components with a concomitant improved seismic resolution.
These two new methods, taken together, enhance both ends of the seismic frequency spectrum to better locate and delineate hydrocarbon reservoirs.
The two-volume textbook is designed as a graduate text in seismic physics and for those in the field of exploration seismology. However, it could be relevant to other fields of non-destructive evaluation, for example, medical imaging and early cancer and cardiovascular problem detection.
The overall viewpoint in the textbook is that science, in general, and seismic physics in particular, is always a “work in progress.” The goal is to add to the tool box of methods, and thereby increase the kind and types of circumstances that can be effectively addressed.