Compressed computation of large-scale wavefield extrapolation in inhomogeneous medium

In this work an explicit algorithm for the extrapolation of one-way wavefields is proposed which combines recent developments in information theory and theoretical signal processing with the physics of wave propagation. Because of excessive memory requirements, explicit formulations for wave propagation have proven to be a challenge in 3-D. By using ideas from ‘‘compressed sensing’’, we are able to formulate the (inverse) wavefield extrapolation problem on small subsets of the data volume, thereby reducing the size of the operators. Compressed sensing entails a new paradigm for signal recovery that provides conditions under which signals can be recovered from incomplete samplings by \emphnonlinear recovery methods that promote sparsity of the to-be-recovered signal. According to this theory, signals can successfully be recovered when the measurement basis is \emphincoherent with the representation in which the wavefield is sparse. In this new approach, the eigenfunctions of the Helmholtz operator are recognized as a basis that is incoherent with sparsity transforms that are known to compress seismic wavefields. By casting the wavefield extrapolation problem in this framework, wavefields can successfully be extrapolated in the modal domain, despite evanescent wave modes. The degree to which the wavefield can be recovered depends on the number of missing (evanescent) wave modes and on the complexity of the wavefield. A proof of principle for the ‘‘compressed sensing’’ method is given for inverse wavefield extrapolation in 2-D. The results show that our method is stable, has reduced dip limitations and handles evanescent waves in inverse extrapolation.