Prestack depth migration of primary and surface-related multiple reflections: Part I — Imaging

Abstract Surface-related multiples (i.e., all seismic waves reflected at the free surface at least once) often severely contaminate seismic recordings. Because conventional imaging techniques require input data that consist of primary reflections only, significant processing effort is commonly dedicated to attenuating multiples prior to migration. On the other hand, surface-related multiples provide additional illumination of the subsurface and, therefore, should not be considered as noise. We present a prestack depth-migration method that allows primary and multiple reflections to be imaged simultaneously. Depth imaging using primary and multiple reflections (DIPMR) involves decomposing the datainto upgoing and downgoing wave constituents, followed by downward extrapolation. Artifacts generated by interference of upgoing and downgoing events not associated with the same subsurface reflection points (crosstalk) are attenuated by using a 2D deconvolution imaging condition. In contrast to existing methods, DIPMR does not require a priori information about the source signature or directivity, because the illuminating source wavefield is extracted directly from the data themselves via the up/down separation. Moreover, there is no need for elimination nor identification of multiples prior to migration. By including surface-related multiples in the imaging procedure, the effective source wavefield is stronger, the spatial aperture is wider, and a higher vertical resolution is enabled through the application of a deconvolution-based imaging condition.