Method and apparatus for adaptive cross-correlation based full waveform inversion

A method for performing a seismic full waveform inversion to generate a velocity model of subsurface formations of a survey region, comprising:

• (a) positioning seismic data recording sensors at a plurality of locations in the survey region and positioning a well logging tool having seismic data recording sensors in a well bore in the survey region;
• (b) emitting at points of incidence in the survey region to generate seismic waves, which travel through subsurface earth formations;
• (c) observing the seismic waves and recording observed seismic data based on the seismic waves using the seismic data recording sensors positioned at the plurality of locations and/or disposed in the well logging tool in the well bore;
• (d) transmitting the observed seismic data from the seismic data recording sensors to a computer system including one or more memories, storing the observed seismic data in the one or more memories, and storing a source wavelet and a current medium parameter model in the one or more memories;
• (e) performing, by the computer system, a forward modeling operation using the source wavelet and the current medium parameter model according to a forward wave equation and obtain a forward wavefield to generate synthetic data based on the forward wave equation;
• (f) processing, by the computer system, the synthetic data and the observed seismic data using a Hann window operation, respectively, to obtain a localized synthetic data and a localized seismic data;
• (g) selecting, by the computer system, a traveltime difference based on a cross-correlation between the localized synthetic data and the localized seismic data;
• (h) solving, by the computer system, an adjoint equation of the forward wave equation using the traveltime difference and the localized seismic data to obtain an adjoint source;
• (i) generating, by the computer system, an updated medium parameter model for the seismic full waveform inversion and synthetic data using the forward modeling operation;
• (j) performing operations (e) to (i) until convergence;
• (k) outputting the updated velocity as a final velocity model to a display upon the convergence;
• and
• (l) displaying an image of the final velocity model on the display of the computer system.