Methods for earth modeling and seismic imaging using interactive and selective updating

A method for enhancing a depth-migrated seismic image comprising:

• a) propagating a set of seismic energy components through an earth model having velocity model characterizations therewithin comprising a set of lens elements to form a set of image components which are summed to form a depth-migrated seismic image;
• b) identifying a target in the seismic image which is to be enhanced;
• c) updating a trial subset of lens elements of less than all of the lens elements from the set of lens elements to update the earth model without updating all of the lens elements of the earth model;
• d) selecting a trial subset of energy components of less than all of the energy components from the energy components of step (a);
• e) propagating the trial subset of energy components through the updated earth model without propagating all of the set of energy components through the updated earth model to create updated image components;
• and
• f) replacing current image components with the updated image components and not replacing those image components that were not updated to create an enhanced seismic image.

A method for enhancing a depth-migrated seismic image comprising:

• a) creating a depth-migrated seismic image using an earth model having velocity model characterizations therewithin comprising a set of lens elements and using seismic data, the seismic image comprising a set of image components, the seismic image including a target which is to be enhanced;
• b) updating a trial subset of less than all of the lens elements selected from the set of lens elements in the earth model;
• c) updating those image components in the seismic image which are associated with changes in the trial subset of lens elements of the earth model which affect the seismic imaging of the target;
• and
• d) subtracting image components in the seismic image and adding in their place updated image components without replacing all of the image components to enhance the seismic image.

A method for enhancing a depth-migrated seismic image comprising:

• a) propagating a set of seismic energy components through a velocity model, comprising a set of lens elements, to form a set of image components which are summed to form an original depth-migrated seismic image;
• b) updating at least some of the lens elements to update the velocity model;
• c) selecting a trial subset of energy components of less than all of the energy components from the set of energy components of step (a);
• d) propagating the trial subset, without propagating all, of the energy components through the updated velocity model to create updated image components;
• and
• e) subtracting image components from the original seismic image and adding in their place updated image components, without replacing all of the image components of the original seismic image, to arrive at an updated enhanced seismic image.