Obtaining three‐dimensional velocity information directly from reflection seismic data: An inverse scattering formalism

We present a formalism for obtaining the subsurface velocity configuration directly from reflection seismic data. Our approach is to apply the results obtained for inverse problems in quantum scattering theory to the reflection seismic problem. In particular, we extend the results of Moses (1956) for inverse quantum scattering and Razavy (1975) for the one‐dimensional (1-D) identification of the acoustic wave equation to the problem of identifying the velocity in the three‐dimensional (3-D) acoustic wave equation from boundary value measurements. No a priori knowledge of the subsurface velocity is assumed and all refraction, diffraction, and multiple reflection phenomena are taken into account. In addition, we explain how the idea of slant stack in processing seismic data is an important part of the proposed 3-D inverse scattering formalism.