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Sensitivity analysis of elastic full-waveform inversion for orthorhombic media

SAGAR SINGH,  ILYA TSVANKIN
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Center for Wave Phenomena, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, U.S.A.,
JSE 2022, 31(2), 105–130;
Submitted: 9 June 2025 | Revised: 9 June 2025 | Accepted: 9 June 2025 | Published: 9 June 2025
© 2025 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
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Abstract

Singh, S. and Tsvankin, I., 2022. Sensitivity analysis of elastic full-waveform inversion for orthorhombic media. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 31: 105-130. Application of elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) to orthorhombic models, which are typical for many subsurface formations, is highly challenging due to the large computational cost and parameter trade-offs. Analyzing radiation (scattering) patterns of the medium parameters s can yield valuable insights into potential trade-offs and the types of data required for reliable parameter estimation. These patterns can be obtained by computing the seismic wavefield due to parameter perturbations represented by the sensitivity kernels (the Fréchet derivatives). We study the sensitivity of FWI to the parameters of elastic orthorhombic media by examining the radiation patterns for a background VTI (transversely isotropic with a vertical axis of symmetry) model. The employed velocity-based parameterization, which represents an extension of previously published notations, can be efficiently incorporated into the FWI framework. In contrast to most existing publications, our analysis includes the radiation patterns for a perturbation in density. The results show that the vertical velocities of the S-waves and the symmetry-direction horizontal velocities of the P-waves can be obtained with high resolution from P- and PS-wave reflection data. The patterns for the S-wave vertical velocities, however, have some overlap with those for the P-wave normal-moveout (NMO) velocities. The P-wave vertical velocity can also be resolved from the pure P and converted PSV reflections but the estimation of the SH-wave symmetry-direction horizontal velocity requires the acquisition of pure shear data. The radiation-pattern analysis also shows that it may be possible to constrain density by inverting the pure- mode P- and S-waves. To verify the conclusions of the sensitivity analysis, we perform FWI of the vertical displacement generated for two horizontal orthorhombic layers beneath a VTI overburden.

Keywords
full-waveform inversion
anisotropy
orthorhombic symmetry
elastic media
multicomponent data
radiation patterns
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing
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