Full waveform inversion (FWI) is a recent exciting technique for the seismic industry because of its potential to deliver very detailed subsurface imaging.

It is an advanced and automatic method for improving velocity models by iteratively matching the modeled data with the recorded data. The process starts with an initial model based on a conventional ray-tracing tomography. It is then improved iteratively by minimizing the phase and/or amplitude difference between the true seismic data and the estimates from the forward modeling until a convergence criterion is met. FWI is extremely computationally expensive because the earth model must be built up with iterations of forward modelling and reverse time migration (RTM).

Acceleware has developed AxFWI™ - a revolutionary modular FWI application which provides the highest level of subsurface velocity model accuracy and leads the industry in compute speed. Its strength is a result of Acceleware’s proven fast and accurate finite-difference engines that power Acceleware's robust Reverse Time Migration (AxRTM™) and Seismic Forward Modeling (AxWave™) solutions. Engineered for maximum performance AxFWI is optimized for modern high performance computing platforms including NVIDIA GPUs, multi-core CPUs and Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors.

It is commercially available and can be used as is or customized for specific workflows, objective functions and gradients.

Reverse Time Migration (RTM) is an advanced migration method for seismic depth imaging. The strength of RTM stems from the fact that it fully respects the two-way acoustic wave equation, thus improving imaging in areas where complex geology violates the assumptions made in Kirchhoff or one-way wave equation migrations. Until recently, RTM’s widespread use was severely hindered by the enormous computing resources required to process the data. This computational bottleneck is now cleared with Acceleware’s AxRTM solution.

AxRTM provides the core numerical functionality of Reverse Time Migration as a library that can be integrated into an existing seismic processing framework. AxRTM has a modular architecture supporting a variety of integrator-specific functionality, and currently supports both optimized multi-core CPU and NVIDIA GPU hardware.

Cost Effective RTM Angle Gathers

In complex geology, traditional RTM offset-domain common image gathers (ODCIG) suffer from artifacts due to multiple paths of wave propagation around complicated structures. The CIGs indexed by subsurface reflection angle suffer much less from migration artifacts for complicated structures, however early implementations of RTM angle gathers have been cost prohibitive. AxRTM’s efficient implementation of true-amplitude ADCIG (in 2D or 3D simulations) can now be used for migration velocity model updating and amplitude versus angle (AVA) analysis. AxRTM’s angle gathers provide a powerful and cost effective tool for validating and improving earth models in complex geology such as beneath salt bodies or gas clouds or in fractured zones.

Below lists major components of the AxRTM library. The architecture of AxRTM is designed to allow for the addition of geophysical functionality in a modular fashion. This allows an Integrator who has their own RTM expertise to incorporate their proprietary methods above and/or into the API.

This application enables a fast and accurate simulation of 2D and 3D seismic energy in an acoustic medium. AxWAVE uses the same finite-difference two-way wave propagation engine that powers Acceleware’s Reverse Time Migration solution, AxRTM, and is optimized for modern high performance computing platforms including NVIDIA GPUs, multi-core CPUs, and Intel Xeon Phi Coprocessors.

AxWAVE is used in seismic forward modelling applications to generate synthetic shot gathers over complicated subsurface structures. The wave propagation engine accurately models acoustic wave behavior, so the resulting shot gathers contain direct arrivals, primaries, surface multiples, and interbed multiples. This simulation process closely emulates acquired field data. Companies can therefore benefit from predicting and validating before investing, reducing costs and improving confidence in decision making. Seismic Forward Modelling can be used in different applications.

In seismic acquisition survey design, seismic forward modeling reduces the risk in seismic exploration by providing quantitative information for better designing 3D acquisition geometries. The forward modelling process can also generate illumination maps to visualize the subsurface seismic energy distribution. For seismic survey designers, both the shot gathers and the illumination maps are useful for evaluating alternative seismic survey geometries and the target zone coverage in a proposed survey. Survey designers can then optimize acquisition geometries to improve the quality of their surveys.

Below lists major components of the AxRTM library. The architecture of AxRTM is designed to allow for the addition of geophysical functionality in a modular fashion. This allows an Integrator who has their own RTM expertise to incorporate their proprietary methods above and/or into the API.