MIN ZHOU'S THESIS

# NEW IMAGING AND FILTERING METHODS: PRIMARY ONLY IMAGING CONDITION AND INTERFEROMETRIC MIGRATION (Ph.D. Dissertation) Min Zhou, University of Utah

The POIC method predicts the far-offset multiples and guides the muting of near-offset multiples in the $\tau-p$ domain with a parabolic Radon transform. Synthetic results indicate that the approach is effective in separating the primary reflections from multiple events in the near offset traces. The POIC method is further combined with the wave-equation based reverse-time datuming (RTD) to better suppress multiples and image the reflectivity distribution below the salt body. Synthetic results show that the hybrid approach can eliminate most of multiple artifacts in the subsalt image.
The IM and reduced time migration (RTM) are developed and applied to the CDP data. Both IM and RTM use the $natural$ arrival times associated with the reflections from a reference reflector which can be picked from the data. The RTM shifts the data with the time difference between the $calculated$ and $natural$ arrival times of a reference reflection, while IM extrapolates the data to the reference datum with the $natural$ arrival times and then migrates the redatumed data below salt. Synthetic test results show the effectiveness of RTM and IM compared to the standard Kirchhoff migration. Results with a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) data show that RTM can mitigate the defocusing in the migration image due to timing errors associated with the statics and shallow structures.