Systems and methods for optimizing seismic surveys to enhance full waveform inversion for modeling subsurface regions

A method for optimizing a seismic survey to enhance full-waveform inversion (FWI) for modeling a subsurface region, the method comprising:

• (a) receiving a subsurface model of a subsurface region;
• (b) selecting one or more areas of interest (AOIs) of the subsurface region;
• and
• (c) performing a seismic survey of the subsurface region with one or more seismic sources positioned along a source surface and a plurality of seismic receivers positioned along a recording surface, the plurality of seismic receivers divided into a plurality of separate receiver classifications each having a unique maximum crossline offset to obtain observed seismic data from the plurality of seismic receivers;
• and
• (d) generating one or more seismic images of the one or more selected AOIs using the observed seismic data and the subsurface model.

A system comprising:

• a one or more processors;
• and
• a storage device coupled to the one or more processors, the storage device configured to store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, configure the one or more processors to:
• (a) receive a subsurface model of a subsurface region;
• (b) generate synthetic seismic data using the subsurface model;
• (c) generating a plurality of reverse time migration (RTM) gathers from the synthetic seismic data;
• (d) stack the plurality of RTM gathers to estimate one or more subsurface kernels of the subsurface region;
• and
• (e) perform a seismic energy contribution analysis using the RTM gathers to identify optimized locations of at least one of one or more seismic sources along a source surface and one or more seismic receivers along a recording surface that contributes a maximal amount of seismic energy to one or more selected area of interest (AOIs) and corresponding to the at least one of the one or more subsurface kernels.