Coupled physics inversion for geological carbon storage monitoring

Understanding CO2 plume behavior is key to the success of geological carbon storage projects. While two-phase flow equations provide a good model to make predictions on future CO2 plume behavior, these equations rely on having access to the true permeability model. Unfortunately, accurate information on the permeability is unavailable, which greatly jeopardizes our ability to predict CO2 plume behavior. To overcome this problem, we estimate the permeability from time-lapse seismic data via a coupled inversion methodology that improve as more monitoring data becomes available over time.