Aperture Partitioned Illumination and Weighting for Optimized Subsalt Imaging

Gherasim et al (2010) described a workflow of applying illumination weighting to wave equation angle gathers for optimized subsalt imaging. The method was effective in reducing subsalt noise and enhancing coherency of subsalt reflectors. The drawback is the computation cost – both illumination weights and baseline angle gathers need to be generated. We adapted the workflow to the aperture partitioned image domain, making it practical in today’s compute infrastructure. The illuminations computed in the aperture partitioned image domain can be used as weights for obtaining optimised subsalt images. In addition, they can also be used to aid interpretation in the subsalt regions.