Bayesian AVO inversion with consistent angle parameters

Amplitude versus offset (AVO) inversion has been extensively used in seismic exploration. Many different elastic parameters can be inverted by incorporating corresponding reflection coefficient approximations. Although efforts have been made to improve the accuracy of AVO inversions for years, there is still one problem that has long been ignored. In most methods, the angle in the approximation and the angle used in seismic angle gather extractions are not the same one. This inconsistency leads to inaccurate inversion results. In this paper, a Bayesian AVO inversion method with consistent angles is proposed to solve the problem and improve inversion accuracy. Firstly, a linearized P-wave reflection coefficient approximation with consistent angles is derived based on angle replacements. The equivalent form of the approximation in terms moduli and density is derived so that moduli can be inverted for reservoir characterization. Then, by convoluting it with seismic wavelets as the forward solver, a probabilistic prestack seismic inversion method with consistent angles is presented in a Bayesian scheme. The synthetic test proves that the accuracy of this method is higher than the traditional one. The real data example shows that the inversion result fits better with well log interpretation data, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed method.