An efficient method for calculating finite-difference seismograms after model alterations

TLDR: A new finite‐difference method is presented that circumvents the need to resimulate the complete model for local changes by requiring only calculations in the subvolume and its neighborhood, which makes possible significant reductions in computational cost and memory requirements.

Abstract: Seismic modeling, processing, and inversion often require the calculation of the seismic response resulting from a suite of closely related seismic models. Even though changes to the model may be restricted to a small subvolume, we need to perform simulations for the full model. We present a new finite‐difference method that circumvents the need to resimulate the complete model for local changes. By requiring only calculations in the subvolume and its neighborhood, our method makes possible significant reductions in computational cost and memory requirements. In general, each source/receiver location requires one full simulation on the complete model. Following these pre‐computations, recalculation of the altered wavefield can be limited to the region around the subvolume and its neighborhood. We apply our method to a 2-D time‐lapse seismic problem, thereby achieving a factor of 15 reduction in computational cost. Potential savings for 3-D are far greater.