Determining the properties and states of a geological volume from seismic waveforms: an integration of novel theory with laboratory and field methods

我的研究小组致力于创造一个最大程度上完整的地震反演波物理图像——也就是说，听声波反射回地面，并从中推断下面隐藏的地质性质的问题。这一事业的成功需要在基础和应用领域进行新的和创新的研究。在这个发现基金提案中，研究项目的重点是前一种类型：它将独立发生，但与我的团队在应用研究方面的强大努力同时发生。本研究可细分为三个相关主题。第一个主要主题是统一：过渡到一个框架，在这个框架中，我们的两大可用的反演理论，“直接非线性逆散射”（is）方法和“全波形反演”（FWI）方法是互补的，但完全只在我们的领域考虑，是一个统一整体的一部分。这是一个尚未开发的科学领域，但我的团队在创建这个统一方案方面处于独特的地位，事实上，我们将在2015年秋季首次公开描述一些候选方法。第二个主题是创建定量方法，描述地震波从三维地质包裹体散射的过程，这些包裹体由非弹性、各向异性和岩石物理特性参数化。用于此目的的一般分析方法要么不存在，要么不完全存在。这将产生新的模拟工具，直接适用于油藏应力和压力监测、盖层完整性、流体粘度等问题，并将促进第一个主题领域的创新。第三个主题是新方法验证的新工具和程序的发展，特别是那些作为主题一和主题二的成果而发展起来的工具和程序。我的小组正在开始开发一个三阶段验证方案，将实验室数据分析作为模拟和现场数据验证步骤之间的垫脚石。我提出了一个围绕这三个主题的基础研究计划，利用我的研究小组正在进行的平行但独立的应用研究，以及我在附近其他正在进行的地震研究项目中的股份。

My research group is engaged in the creation of a maximally complete picture of the wave physics of seismic inversion - that is, the problem of listening to sound waves echoing back to the surface and from them inferring the properties of the hidden geology below. Success in this enterprise requires new and innovative research to be carried out in both basic and applied domains. The focus of the research program in this Discovery Grant proposal is on the former type: it will occur independently but in parallel with strong efforts by my group in applied research as well. The proposed research can be subdivided into three related themes. The first major theme is one of unification: transitioning towards a framework in which our two big available theories for inversion, "direct nonlinear inverse scattering" (IS) methods and "full waveform inversion" (FWI) methods, which are complementary but entirely exclusively considered in our field, are parts of a unified whole. This is very much unexplored scientific territory, but my group is in a unique position to create this unified scheme, and in fact will publicly describe some candidate approaches for the first time in the Fall of 2015. The second theme is the creation of quantitative methods describing the processes by which seismic waves scatter from 3D geological inclusions parameterized by anelastic, anisotropic, and rock-physics properties. General analytic methods for this purpose either do not exist or incompletely exist. This will result in new tools for simulation, directly applicable to problems of reservoir monitoring for stress and pressure, caprock integrity, fluid viscosity, etc., and will facilitate innovation in the first theme area. The third theme is the development of new tools and procedures for validation of new methods, especially those developed as outcomes of themes one and two. My group is beginning the development of a 3-stage validation scheme, incorporating laboratory data analysis as a stepping stone between simulated and field data validation steps. I propose a basic research plan built around these three themes, that leverages the parallel but independent applied research being carried out by my research group and my stake in other nearby ongoing seismic research projects.