LAUSR

Stacking of multichannel seismic reflection data is a crucial step in seismic data processing, usually leading to the first interpretable seismic image. Stacking is preceded by traveltime correction, where all events contained in a common midpoint gather (CMP) are corrected for their offset-dependent traveltime increase. Such corrections are often based on the assumption of hyperbolic traveltime curves and a best fit hyperbola is usually sought for each reflection by careful determination of stacking velocities. However, assuming hyperbolic traveltime curves is not accurate in many situations, e.g. in case of strongly curved reflectors, large offset-to-target-ratios or strong anisotropy. Here we show that an underlying model parameterizing the shape of the traveltime curve is not a strict necessity for producing high-quality stacks. Based on non-rigid image matching techniques, we propose an alternative way of stacking, both independent of a reference velocity model and any prior assumptions regarding the...