Elastic FWI application to a land data set in the Middle East

Seismic imaging is particularly challenging in the Middle East. The shallow geology is often characterized by strong velocity contrasts from layered sands and carbonates that create multiples and mode conversions. Capturing these velocity variations is essential for accurate imaging. While re-cent developments in full-waveform inversion (FWI) make it a powerful velocity model building tool, its application to land data, with poorer data quality and stronger elastic effects, remains challenging. Elastic FWI further advances velocity model building in these complex geological settings, allowing for a more physically accurate description of the subsurface. We present a workflow based on a combination of diving-wave anisotropic elastic FWI and joint refraction-reflection tomography. With synthetic and real data, we show that it permits inverting a larger part of the diving-wave train compared to acoustic FWI. With the real data ex-ample, we demonstrate the Vp model inverted from elastic FWI gives better focused stack image with improved event continuity and flatter gathers with enhanced coherence.