Seismic acquisition geometry full-waveform inversion

1. A process for use in seismic exploration, comprising:

obtaining a diving wave illumination image of a subterranean region from a set of seismic data representative of the subterranean region using a selected acquisition geometry in response to performing a reverse time migration on low frequency seismic data, wherein the selected acquisition geometry describes a location of a source and a location of a receiver;

clipping an inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values;

performing a weighted full-waveform inversion on a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean region, including:

weighting a full-waveform inversion gradient with the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image by multiplying the full-waveform inversion gradient by the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image; and

performing the full-waveform inversion on parts of the subsurface attribute model corresponding to an area associated with the weighted gradient.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the diving wave illumination image includes retrieving a legacy diving wave illumination image from storage.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein obtaining the diving wave illumination image includes:

forward modeling on the subsurface attribute model to generate a set of synthetic, the low frequency seismic data, the subsurface attribute model being generated from the data representative of the subterranean region;

performing the reverse time migration on the low frequency seismic data to obtain a plurality of gathers with large opening angles; and

stacking the gathers to yield the diving wave illumination image.

4. The process of claim 3 , wherein the subsurface attribute model is a smooth subsurface attribute model.

5. The process of claim 3 , wherein the low frequency seismic data are acquired by performing an acquisition between approximately 2 Hz-6 Hz.

6. The process of claim 3 , wherein the large opening angles comprise angles greater than approximately 160°.

7. The process of claim 3 , wherein the subsurface attribute model comprises a velocity model.

8. The process of claim 3 , wherein the subsurface attribute model is obtained from a set of seismic data.

9. The process of claim 1 , further comprising clipping and weighted full-waveform inversion using a second range of values.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to the range of values includes clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values between 0 and 1.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein performing the weighted full-waveform inversion includes performing a weighted full-waveform inversion with seismic data acquired from the subterranean region using the selected acquisition geometry.

12. The process of claim 1 , wherein performing the weighted full-waveform inversion includes performing a weighted full-waveform inversion with synthetic seismic data acquired from a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean region using the selected acquisition geometry.

13. A process for use in seismic exploration, comprising:

objectively quantifying a depth of investigation in a subterranean region for a selected acquisition geometry, wherein the selected acquisition geometry describes a location of a source and a location of a receiver;

updating a subsurface attribute model for the subterranean region up to the objectively quantified depth of investigation, including:

obtaining a diving wave illumination image of the subterranean region from a set of seismic data representative of the subterranean region using the selected acquisition geometry in response to performing a reverse time migration on low frequency seismic data;

clipping an inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values;

weighting a full-waveform inversion gradient with the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image by multiplying the full-waveform inversion gradient by the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image; and

performing a full-waveform inversion on parts of the subsurface attribute model corresponding to an area associated with the weighted gradient; and iteratively performing subsequent weighted full-waveform inversions using differently weighted full-waveform inversion gradients to update the subsurface attribute model to depths deeper than the depth of investigation.

14. The process of claim 13 , further comprising:

forward modeling on the subsurface attribute model to generate a set of synthetic, the low frequency seismic data, the subsurface attribute model being generated from the data representative of the subterranean region;

performing the reverse time migration on the low frequency seismic data to obtain a plurality of gathers with large opening angles; and

stacking the gathers to yield the diving wave illumination image.

15. The process of claim 14 , wherein the subsurface attribute model is a smooth subsurface attribute model.

16. The process of claim 14 , wherein the low frequency seismic data are acquired by performing an acquisition between approximately 2 Hz-6 Hz.

17. The process of claim 14 , wherein the large opening angles comprise angles greater than approximately 160°.

18. A method for use in seismic exploration, comprising:

obtaining a given acquisition geometry, wherein the given acquisition geometry is describes a location of a source and a location of a receiver;

preconditioning a full-waveform inversion on a subsurface attribute model of a subterranean region using the given acquisition geometry by:

obtaining a diving wave illumination image of the subterranean region from a set of seismic data representative of the subterranean region using the given acquisition geometry in response to performing a reverse time migration on low frequency seismic data;

clipping an inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values; and

weighting a full-waveform inversion gradient with the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image by multiplying the full-waveform inversion gradient by the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image; and

performing the preconditioned full-waveform inversion on parts of the subsurface model corresponding to an area associated with the weighted gradient.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein preconditioning the full-waveform inversion includes:

objectively quantifying a depth of investigation for the subsurface attribute model using the given acquisition.

20. A process for use in seismic exploration, comprising:

obtaining a diving wave illumination image of a subterranean region from a set of seismic data representative of the subterranean region using a selected acquisition geometry in response to performing a reverse time migration on low frequency seismic data, wherein the selected acquisition geometry describes a location of a source and a location of a receiver;

clipping an inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values;

performing a weighted full-waveform inversion on a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean region, including:

weighting a full-waveform inversion gradient with the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image by multiplying the full-waveform inversion gradient by the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image; and

performing the full-waveform inversion on parts of the subsurface attribute model corresponding to an area associated with the weighted gradient; and

iteratively performing subsequent weighted full-waveform inversions using differently weighted full-waveform inversion gradients to update the subsurface attribute model to depths deeper than the depth of investigation.

21. The process of claim 20 , wherein obtaining the diving wave illumination image includes:

forward modeling on the subsurface attribute model to generate a set of synthetic, the low frequency seismic data, the subsurface attribute model being generated from the data representative of the subterranean region;

performing the reverse time migration on the low frequency seismic data to obtain a plurality of gathers with large opening angles; and

stacking the gathers to yield the diving wave illumination image.

22. The process of claim 21 , wherein the subsurface attribute model is a smooth subsurface attribute model.

23. The process of claim 21 , wherein the low frequency seismic data are acquired by performing an acquisition between approximately 2 Hz-6 Hz.

24. The process of claim 21 , wherein the large opening angles comprise angles greater than approximately 160°.

25. The process of claim 20 , wherein clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to the range of values includes clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values between 0 and 1.

26. An apparatus, comprising:

a storage;

a communication medium;

a processor communicating with the storage over the communication medium;

a set of seismic data residing on the storage, the seismic data being representative of a subterranean region and obtained using a selected acquisition geometry, wherein the selected acquisition geometry describes a location of a source and a location of a receiver;

a software component residing on the storage that, when executed by the processor, performs a process for use in seismic exploration, comprising:

obtaining a diving wave illumination image of a subterranean region from the set of seismic data in response to performing a reverse time migration on low frequency seismic data;

clipping an inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values;

performing a weighted full-waveform inversion on a subsurface attribute model of the subterranean region, including:

weighting a full-waveform inversion gradient with the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image by multiplying the full-waveform inversion gradient by the clipped inverse of the diving wave illumination image; and

performing the full-waveform inversion on parts of the subsurface attribute model corresponding to an area associated with the weighted gradient.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein obtaining the diving wave illumination image includes:

forward modeling on the subsurface attribute model to generate a set of synthetic, the low frequency seismic data, the subsurface attribute model being generated from the data representative of the subterranean region;

performing the reverse time migration on the low frequency seismic data to obtain a plurality of gathers with large opening angles; and

stacking the gathers to yield the diving wave illumination image.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the subsurface attribute model is a smooth subsurface attribute model.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the low frequency seismic data are acquired by performing an acquisition between approximately 2 Hz-6 Hz.

30. The apparatus of claim 27 , wherein the large opening angles comprise angles greater than approximately 160°.

31. The apparatus of claim 26 , wherein clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to the range of values includes clipping the inverse of the diving wave illumination image to a range of values between 0 and 1.