Adaptive Finite Difference for Seismic Wavefield Modelling

Summary We present an alternative scheme for calculating finite difference coefficients in seismic wavefield modelling. This novel technique seeks to minimise the difference between the accurate value of spatial derivatives and the value calculated by the finite difference operator over all propagation angles. Since the coefficients vary adaptively with different velocities and source wavelet bandwidths, the method maximises the accuracy of the finite difference operator. Numerical examples demonstrate that this method is superior to standard finite difference methods whilst comparable to Zhang’s optimised finite difference method.