Laplace-fourier waveform inversion for coupled media using staggered grid modeling

The Laplace-Fourier waveform inversion is one of the most efficient techniques used to estimate certain properties of the earth. However, factorizing the global matrix that represents the wave modeling operator for the acousticelastic coupled media is still computationally intensive for practical application. To solve this problem, we applied the time-domain staggered grid modeling to the Laplace-Fourier waveform inversion. The staggered grid modeling using the first-order elastic wave equation enabled us to perform forward and backward modeling in acoustic-elastic coupled media without combining the acoustic and elastic wave equations. In addition, the time-domain modeling algorithm critically reduces the large memory space required for waveform modeling and inversion. The validity of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated using a real marine dataset from the Gulf of Mexico.