Joint simultaneous inversion of PP and PS angle gathers

Brian H. Russell, Daniel P. Hampson, Keith W. Hirsche, Janusz Peron

We present a new approach to the joint simultaneous inversion of PP and PS angle gathers for the estimation of P-impedance, S-impedance and density. Our algorithm is based on three assumptions. The first is that the linearized approximation for reflectivity holds. The second is that PP and PS reflectivity as a function of angle can be given by the Aki-Richards linearized equations (Aki and Richards, 2002). The third is that there is a linear relationship between the logarithm of P-impedance and both S-impedance and density. Given these three assumptions, we show how a final estimate of P-impedance, S-impedance and density can be found by perturbing an initial P-impedance model. After a description of the algorithm, we then apply our method to both model and real data sets.