Using Plane Wave Destruction Filters to Invert for Time-lapse Time Shifts and Time Strain

Time shifts occur between different vintages of time-lapse seismic data due to production-induced velocity and strain changes. Estimating these shifts is hampered by the limited bandwidth of seismic data and noise. This abstract introduces a new non-linear inversion for aligning time-lapse seismic vintages. This method is based on plane wave destruction, which provides an analytic approximation of the time-shifting function and its derivative. Initially, the concept of plane wave destruction is recapped, but described in the context of time-lapse time shift estimation. Construction of the non-linear inverse problem for local time shifts using plane wave destruction filters is then detailed, along with a linearization and Gauss-Newton solution method. Extension of this method to the estimation of time strain is then described. Results are presented which show this new inversion method can obtain results comparable to existing prevalent techniques, in fewer non-linear iterations and with improved accuracy possible using careful regularization.