Born modeling for heterogeneous media using the Gaussian beam summation based Green's function

•We derive a new Born formula in Gaussian beam representations of Green's function.•This procedure can mitagate the problems of caustic and shadow region.•A modified isochronous stack for Born modeling is obtained.

Born approximation is a commonly used approximation in the simulation of seismic wave propagation. Calculation of the Green's function in Born approximation integral is essential for Born modeling. We derive a new Born formula based on the Gaussian beam representations of Green's functions. This procedure can be used to mitigate the problems like the caustic, shadow region, and multivalued traveltime caused by multipathing that traditional geometric ray theory cannot deal with. However, due to the characteristic of complex traveltime in the Gaussian beam, we present a new isochronous stack method for Gaussian beam based Born modeling. Additionally, two basic issues, background velocity and integral region selection, are discussed. Numerical results demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the Gaussian beam based Born theory and implementation.