Refraction travel-time tomography based on adjoint state techniques

Cédric Taillandier (1) , Mark S. Noble (1) , Hervé Chauris (1) , Pascal Podvin (1) , Henri Calandra (2) , Jérôme Guilbot (2)

1 GEOSCIENCES - Centre de Géosciences
2 CSTJF - Centre scientifique et Technique Jean Feger

Standard refraction traveltime tomography based on ray tracing techniques has difficulties to handle large datasets that come from current seismic acquisition surveys. To overcome this problem we suggest a refraction tomography method based on adjoint state techniques to derive the gradient of the traveltime misfit function. We use the eikonal equation for the forward modelling, and iterate with a conjugate gradient method. Synthetic examples demonstrate the efficiency and the great potential of the method for 3D applications of refraction tomography.

Mots clés: Travel time tomography; near subsurface imaging; refracted waves; diving waves; velocity model building

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Milieux et Changements globaux

Cédric Taillandier, Mark S. Noble, Hervé Chauris, Pascal Podvin, Henri Calandra, et al.. Refraction travel-time tomography based on adjoint state techniques. 69th EAGE Conference and Technical Exhibition, Eur. Ass. of Geoscientists and Engineers, Jun 2007, London, United Kingdom. pp.P054. ⟨hal-00535854⟩