Which data residual norm for robust elastic frequency-domain full waveform inversion?

TLDR: In this paper, the performance of different minimization functionals such as the least squares norm 2, the least absolute values norm 1, and combinations of both the Huber and so-called hybrid criteria with reference to two offshore and onshore Valhallmodelandonshore overthrust model synthetic data sets were investigated in 2D elastic frequency-domain fullwaveform inversion FWI.

Abstract: Elastic full-waveform inversion is an ill-posed data-fitting procedure that is sensitive to noise, inaccuracies of the starting model,definitionofmultiparameterclasses,andinaccuratemodeling of wavefield amplitudes. We have investigated the performance of different minimization functionals as the least-squares norm 2, the least-absolute-values norm 1, and combinations of both the Huber and so-called hybrid criteria with reference to twonoisyoffshoreValhallmodelandonshoreoverthrustmodel synthetic data sets. The four minimization functionals were implemented in 2D elastic frequency-domain full-waveform inversion FWI, where efficient multiscale strategies were designed by successive inversions of a few increasing frequencies. For the offshore and onshore case studies, the 1-norm provided the most reliable models for P- and S-wave velocities VP and VS, even when strongly decimated data sets that correspond to fewfrequencieswereusedintheinversionandwhenoutlierspolluted the data. The 2-norm can provide reliable results in the presence of uniform white noise for VP and VS if the data redundancyisincreasedbyrefiningthefrequencysamplingintervalin the inversion at the expense of computational efficiency. The 1-norm and the Huber and hybrid criteria, unlike the 2-norm, allowforsuccessfulimagingoftheVSmodelfromnoisydataina soft-seabed environment, where the P-to-S-waves have a small footprint in the data. However, the Huber and hybrid criteria are sensitive to a threshold criterion that controls the transition between the criteria and that requires tedious trial-and-error investigations for reliable estimation. The 1-norm provides a robust alternativetothe2-normforinvertingdecimateddatasetsinthe frameworkofefficientfrequency-domainFWI.