Angle domain imaging of relative impedance perturbation

ABSTRACT Impedance is a physical parameter that plays an important role in seismic data processing and interpretation. A relative impedance perturbation (the ratio of the impedance perturbation and the impedance for the background models) imaging method in depth domain based on the reflection wave equation is proposed. Under the small perturbation assumption, primary wave and high‐frequency approximation condition, a linear propagation equation of the primary reflection waves based on the relative impedance perturbation was first derived. On this basis, we further derived the imaging formula of the relative impedance perturbation using a linear inversion theory. Then, the source–receiver bidirectional illumination compensation was used to improve the image quality of the subsurface structures. The image result obtained by this method can be used to estimate the relative impedance perturbation. In the angle domain, the extracted near‐angle‐domain image gather with amplitude compensation can estimate the relative impedance perturbation, and the far‐angle image gather provides the estimation of the relative velocity perturbation (the ratio of the velocity perturbation and the background velocity). Finally, several numerical tests demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.