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Image-domain least-squares reverse time migration based on the qP-wave equation in vertically transversely isotropic media

Shuo Wei1 ,  Bingshou He1,2* ,  Mingqian Wang1 ,  Xuefeng Wu1 ,  Huixing Zhang1,2
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1 Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong, China
2 Laboratory for Marine Mineral Resources, Qingdao Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao, Shandong, China
JSE, 026110046 https://doi.org/10.36922/JSE026110046
Received: 10 March 2026 | Revised: 15 May 2026 | Accepted: 15 May 2026 | Published online: 3 June 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Reverse time migration based on the wave equation can effectively image subsurface structures, but it often suffers from amplitude imbalance and limited resolution because it relies on the adjoint operator rather than the true inverse operator. Least-squares reverse time migration (LSRTM) alleviates these issues but is computationally expensive in the data domain. In this study, we propose a hybrid-regularization-based qP-wave image-domain LSRTM method for vertically transversely isotropic (VTI) media. The Hessian operator is approximated using space-variant point-spread functions constructed via Born modeling and migration. A hybrid regularization strategy combining Tikhonov and total variation terms is employed, and the optimization problem is efficiently solved using the Split Bregman method. Numerical results on synthetic and field data demonstrate that the proposed method improves imaging resolution, amplitude balance, and structural continuity, while maintaining high computational efficiency. This approach provides an effective solution for target-oriented seismic imaging in VTI media.

Keywords
Reverse time migration
Anisotropic media
Point-spread function
Regularization
Funding
This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant no. ZR2025MS675) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42474148).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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