Comparing three feedback internal multiple elimination methods

We begin with theory review of layer-related feedback IME methods, where implementation steps for each method are discussed, and involved event separation are further analyzed. Then, recursive application of the three IME methods is demonstrated on synthetic data and field data. It shows that the two well established prediction-and-subtraction methods provide similar primary estimation results, with most of the internal multiples being removed while multiple leakage and primary distortion have been observed where primaries and internal multiples interfere. In contrast, generalized EPSI provides reduced multiple leakage and better primary restoration which is of great value for current seismic amplitude-preserved processing. As a main conclusion, with adaptive subtraction avoided, the inversion-based method is more effective than the prediction-and-subtraction methods for internal multiple elimination when primaries and internal multiples overlap. However, the inversion-based method is quite computationally intensive, and more researches on efficient implementation need to be done in future.