State of the Art in Full Waveform Inversion (FWI)
By: Ian Jones
Instructor
Ian Jones
Duration
6-7 February 2025
8AM-12PM CET
4hours/day
Disciplines
Geophysics
Course Format
The EAGE Interactive online short courses bring carefully selected courses of experienced instructors from industry and academia online to give participants the possibility to follow the latest education in geoscience and engineering remotely. The courses are designed to be easily digested over the course of two or three days. Participants will have the possibility to interact live with the instructor and ask questions.
Education Packages
To help you save on registration fees and better organize your learning path, we are offering Education Packages for all Interactive Online Short Courses and Online EETs. The packages are valid for a period of 12 months, choose between packages of 3, 5 and 10 credits.
Course Description
Over the past ten years, full waveform inversion (FWI) as emerged and developed to the point that is now the main technique of choice for detailed model building and reflectivity estimation for complex geological environments. In this review, the instructor will outline the underlying principles involved in FWI, detailing the use of RTM to es- timate the location of subsurface parameter error, and introduce the many and varied ‘flavors’ of FWI, noting their limitations and benefits. Use of FWI for model estimation, reflectivity generation, and pre-sack attribute analysis (AVA) will be covered, and demonstrated with field data examples.
Course Outline
The following steps will be discussed:
For the topics listed below, real data examples will be used to demon- strate the application and limitation of each technique.
• Why do we need a detailed velocity model?
• Migration using wavefield extrapolation methods (WEM, RTM, etc.) One-way versus two-way propagation
• Resolving short-scale-length velocity anomalies
• The mechanics of tomographic inversion with wavefield extrapola- tion theory (FWI) The scattering limit Refraction versus reflection
Different ‘norms’ (dynamic versus kinematic: least-squares, travel time, phase, optimal transport)
• Examples of current industrial practice for various geological settings
Participants' Profile
The course is designed to be followed by anyone with a broad geosci- ence background.
Prerequisites
No specific detailed foreknowledge is required, although a familiarity with geophysical terminology will be useful.
About the Instructor
Ian Jones received a joint honours BSc in Physics with Geology from the University of Manchester, UK, in 1977, an MSc in Seismology from the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and a PhD in Geophysical Signal Processing from the University of British Columbia, Canada. After working for ‘Inverse Theory & Applications’ in Canada for two years, he joined CGG, where for 15 years he was involved in R&D in the London and Paris offices, latterly as manager of the depth imaging.