Efficient WEMVA using extended images

Image gathers as a function of subsurface offset are an important tool for velocity analysis in areas of complex geology. Here, we offer a new perspective on image gathers by organizing the extended image as a function of all subsurface offsets and all subsurface points in to a matrix whose (i,j)th entry captures the interaction between gridpoints i and j. For even small problems, it is infeasible to form and store this matrix. Instead, we propose an efficient algorithm to glean information from the image volume via efficient matrix-vector products. We illustrate how this can be used to construct objective functions for automated MVA.