Least-squares extended imaging with surface-related multiples

Common image gathers are used in building velocity models, inverting for anisotropy parameters, and analyzing reservoir attributes. Typically, only primary reflections are used to form image gathers as multiples can cause artifacts that interfere with the events of interest. However, it has been shown that multiples can actually provide extra illumination of the subsurface, especially for delineating the near-surface features. In this paper, we aim to form common image gathers directly from the data with surface related multiples by applying concepts that have been used to successfully deal with surface-related multiples in imaging. We achieve this by effectively inverting an extended migration operator. This results in extended images with better near-surface illumination that are free of artifacts that can hamper velocity analysis. In addition, being able to generate extended images directly from the total data avoids the need for (time-consuming) pre-processing. Synthetic examples on a layered model show that the proposed formulation is promising.