Comparisons for waveform inversion, time domain or frequency domain?

Abstract

The Earth model parameters are essential to hydrocarbon exploration. In particular, the velocity representation of the subsurface permanently engages creative minds to find ways to derive more accurate fields. One of these tools is full waveform inversion. This compute‐intensive tool uses acquired seismic data and forward modeling to obtain a velocity field in an iterative manner. Since the mid‐eighties, the geophysical community has been devoting considerable research to waveform inversion. The inversion can be implemented in either the time or frequency domain. In this paper, we investigate the pros and cons for each domain along with some discussion on their ability to be used for 3D surveys.