Total variation constrained full waveform inversion with continuation

Adding a total variation constraint to the Wavefield Reconstruction Inversion model proposed by van Leeuwen and Herrmann can improve robustness and remove artifacts by encouraging piecewise smooth solutions. However, if the parameter controlling the strength of the TV regularization is not well chosen, important details can be lost. We investigate continuation strategies that gradually reduce the strength of the TV constraint so that these important details are eventually allowed back into the solution. Preliminary numerical experiments suggest that this can improve the solution path and lead to better velocity models than if TV regularization were not used during the intermediate steps.