ARTICLE

Methodology of time-lapse elastic full-waveform inversion for VTI media

YANHUA LIU ILYA TSVANKIN
Show Less
Center for Wave Phenomena, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, U.S.A.,
JSE 2021, 30(3), 257–270;
Submitted: 9 June 2025 | Revised: 9 June 2025 | Accepted: 9 June 2025 | Published: 9 June 2025
© 2025 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Liu, Y.H. and Tsvankin, I., 2021. Methodology of time-lapse elastic full-waveform inversion for VTI media. Journal of Seismic Explorarion, 30: 257-270. Time-lapse seismic processing can provide important information about the variations of reservoir properties during hydrocarbon production and CO, injection. High-resolution results for time-lapse seismic can potentially be obtained from full- waveform inversion (FWI), but most existing time-lapse FWI methods are limited to isotropic and, often, acoustic media. Extension of these techniques to more realistic anisotropic elastic models is hampered by the trade-offs between the medium parameters and significantly increased computational cost. Here, we develop a time-lapse FWI algorithm for VTI (transversely isotropic with a vertical symmetry axis) media and evaluate several strategies of applying it to multicomponent and pressure data. The adjoint-state method and a nonlinear conjugate-gradient technique are employed to derive the gradient of the objective function and update the model parameters. We test the algorithm on a relatively simple VTI graben model using the parallel-difference, sequential-difference and double-difference time-lapse methods. The results confirm the ability of the proposed technique to reconstruct localized time-lapse parameter variations in anisotropic media with sufficient spatial resolution. The double-difference approach proves to be more accurate than the other methods in reconstructing the time-lapse variations from noise-free multicomponent data. When FWI operates with clean pressure data, the parallel-difference method is generally more accurate than the other techniques, especially in estimating the shear-wave vertical velocity Vso. For multicomponent and pressure data contaminated with realistic noise, the double-difference method produces large errors in the temporal variations of the VTI parameters. The parallel-difference technique outperforms its sequential-difference counterpart in reconstructing the time- lapse variations inside the target zone from the noisy data while the latter approach performs better in suppressing the false artifacts outside the “reservoir”. The tests also demonstrate that including more information in time-lapse FWI does not always improve the inversion results, likely due to the increased multimodality of the objective function.

Keywords
time-lapse seismic
full-waveform inversion (FWD
multicomponent data
elastic inversion
anisotropy
VTI media
References
  1. Alemie, W. and Sacchi, M., 2016. Joint reparametrized time-lapse full-waveform
  2. inversion. Expanded Abstr., 86th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Dallas: 1309-1314.
  3. Asnaashari, A., Brossier, R., Garambois, S., Audebert, F., Thore, P. and Virieux, J., 2012.
  4. Time-lapse imaging using regularized FWI: a robustness study. Expanded Abstr.,
  5. 82nd Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Las Vegas: 1-5.
  6. Asnaashari, A., Brossier, R., Garambois, S., Audebert, F., Thore, P. and Virieux, J., 2015.
  7. Time-lapse seismic imaging using regularized full-waveform inversion with a
  8. prior model: Which strategy? Geophys. Prosp., 63: 78-98.
  9. Bunks, C., Saleck, F.M., Zaleski, S. and Chavent, G., 1995. Multiscale seismic waveform
  10. inversion. Geophysics, 60: 1457-1473.
  11. Denli, H. and Huang, L., 2009. Double-difference elastic waveform tomography in the
  12. time domain. Expanded Abstr., 79th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Houston: 2302-
  13. Kamath, N. and Tsvankin, I., 2013. Full-waveform inversion of multicomponent data for
  14. horizontally layered VTI media. Geophysics, 78(5): WC113-WC121.
  15. Kamath, N. and Tsvankin, I., 2016. Elastic full-waveform inversion for VTI media:
  16. Methodology and sensitivity analysis. Geophysics, 81(2): C53-C68.
  17. Kamath, N., Tsvankin, I. and Diaz, E., 2017. Elastic full-waveform inversion for VTI
  18. media: A synthetic parameterization study. Geophysics, 82(5): C163-C174.
  19. Lumley, D., 2010. 4D seismic monitoring of CO sequenstration. The Leading Edge, 29:
  20. 150-155.
  21. Maharramov, M. and Biondi, B., 2014. Joint full-waveform inversion of time-lapse
  22. seismic data sets. Expanded Abstr., 84th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Denver: 954-
  23. Pevzner, R., Urosevic, M., Popik, D., Shulakova, V., Tertyshnikov, E., Caspari, E.,
  24. Correa, J., Dance, T., Kepic, A., Glubokovskikh, S., Ziramov, S., Gurevich, B.,
  25. Singh, R., Raab, M., Watson, M., Daley, T., Robertson, M. and Freifeld, B., 2017.
  26. 4D surface seismic tracks small supercritical CO2 injection into the subsurface,
  27. CO2CRC Otway Project. Internat. J. Greenhouse Gas Contr., 63:150-157.
  28. Plessix, R.-E., Michelet, S., Rynja, H., Kuehl, H., Perkins, C., Maag, J. and Hatchell, P.,
  29. Some 3D applications of full waveform inversion. Expanded Abstr., 72nd
  30. EAGE Conf., Barcelona.
  31. Singh, S., Tsvankin, I. and Zahibi Naeini, E., 2018. Bayesian framework for elastic
  32. full-waveform inversion with facies information. The Leading Edge, 37: 924-931.
  33. Singh, S., Tsvankin, I. and Zahibi Naeini, E., 2019. Bayesian approach to facies-
  34. constrained waveform inversion for VTI media. Expanded Abstr., 89th Ann.
  35. Internat. SEG Mtg., San Antonio: 1370-1374.
  36. Smith, S.S. and Tsvankin, I., 2013. Sensitivity of compaction-induced multicomponent
  37. seismic time shifts to variations in reservoir properties. Geophysics, 78(5): T151-
  38. T163.
  39. Smith, S.S. and Tsvankin, I., 2016. Inversion of multicomponent seismic time shifts for
  40. reservoir pressure and length: A feasibility study. Geophys. Prosp., 64: 83-101.
  41. Tarantola, A., 1984, Linearized inversion of seismic refection data. Geophys. Prosp., 32:
  42. 998-1015.
  43. Thomsen, L., 1986. Weak elastic anisotropy. Geophysics, 51: 1954-1966.
  44. Tsvankin, I., 2012. Seismic Signatures and Analysis of Refection Data in Anisotropic
  45. Media, 3rd ed. SEG, Tulsa, OK.
  46. Vigh, D., Jiao, K., Watts, D. and Sun, D., 2014. Elastic full-waveform inversion
  47. application using multicomponent measurements of seismic data collection.
  48. Geophysics, 79(2): R63- R77.
  49. Watanabe, T., Shimizu, S., Asakawa, E. and Matsuoka, T., 2004. Differential waveform
  50. tomography for time-lapse crosswell seismic data with application to gas hydrate
  51. production monitoring. Expanded Abstr., 74th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Denver:
  52. 2323-2326.
Share
Back to top
Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing