Efficient elastic reverse-time migration for the decomposed P-wavefield using stress tensor in the time domain

• We proposed RTM methods for P-wavefield decomposition without divergence operator.
• The stress tensor consists of spatially differentiated displacements.
• To emphasize interfaces, the absolute value function is used to imaging condition.
• The results show subsurface features accurately by using developed imaging conditions.

Because complex mixed waves are typically generated in elastic media, wavefield decomposition is required for such media to obtain migration images accurately. In isotropic media, this is achieved according to the Helmholtz decomposition theorem; in particular, the divergence operator is commonly applied to P-wavefield decomposition. In this study, two types of elastic reverse-time migration algorithms are proposed for decomposition of the P-wavefield without requiring the divergence operator. The first algorithm involves formulation of the stress tensor by spatially differentiated displacement according to the stress–strain relationship and is utilized to construct an imaging condition for the decomposed P-wavefield. We demonstrate this approach through numerical testing. The second algorithm allows us to obtain emphasized interfaces through the application of the absolute value function to decomposed wavefield in imaging condition.Because reverse-time migration can be defined by a zero-lag cross-correlation relationship between the partial-derivative wavefield and the observed wavefield data, we derive the virtual source to construct the partial-derivative wavefield based on a 2D staggered-grid finite-difference modeling method in the time domain. The explicitly computed partial-derivative wavefield from virtual sources with the stress tensor is in agreement with the partial-derivative wavefield directly computed from residual by between with and without a perturbation point in the subsurface. Moreover, the back-propagation technique is used to enhance the computational efficiency.To validate our two types of imaging conditions, numerical tests are conducted. The migration images created according to our imaging conditions can represent the subsurface structure accurately. Thus, we can confirm the feasibility of obtaining migration images of the decomposed P-wavefield without requiring the application of the divergence operator.