Accelerating numerical wave propagation by wavefield adapted meshes. Part II: full-waveform inversion

SUMMARY We present a novel full-waveform inversion (FWI) approach which can reduce the computational cost by up to an order of magnitude compared to conventional approaches, provided that variations in medium properties are sufficiently smooth. Our method is based on the usage of wavefield adapted m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeophysical journal international Vol. 221; no. 3; pp. 1591 - 1604
Main Authors Thrastarson, Solvi, van Driel, Martin, Krischer, Lion, Boehm, Christian, Afanasiev, Michael, van Herwaarden, Dirk-Philip, Fichtner, Andreas
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford University Press 01.06.2020
Subjects
Waveform inversion
Computational seismology
Seismic tomography
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Summary:SUMMARY We present a novel full-waveform inversion (FWI) approach which can reduce the computational cost by up to an order of magnitude compared to conventional approaches, provided that variations in medium properties are sufficiently smooth. Our method is based on the usage of wavefield adapted meshes which accelerate the forward and adjoint wavefield simulations. By adapting the mesh to the expected complexity and smoothness of the wavefield, the number of elements needed to discretize the wave equation can be greatly reduced. This leads to spectral-element meshes which are optimally tailored to source locations and medium complexity. We demonstrate a workflow which opens up the possibility to use these meshes in FWI and show the computational advantages of the approach. We provide examples in 2-D and 3-D to illustrate the concept, describe how the new workflow deviates from the standard FWI workflow, and explain the additional steps in detail.
ISSN:0956-540X
1365-246X
DOI:10.1093/gji/ggaa065