A matched‐filter approach to impedance estimation

Stacked seismic data are modeled as a superposition of simple‐interface and thin layer reflections. This parameterization permits a parsimonious blocky model of the impedance. The method is an alternative to the classical least‐mean‐squared‐error approach and is similar in spirit to minimum‐entropy deconvolution and sparse‐spike inversion, although much different, and simpler, in implementation. A specified number of events on a seismic trace are modeled (inverted) independently. The selected set of basis functions used to represent the data includes a simple interface and a suite of high and low impedance layers covering a range of layer thickness. The simple interface basis function is the seismic wavelet, which is presumed to be known. Each event is classified using a normalized zero‐lag crosscorrelation of the basis functions with the seismic trace. Modeled events are prevented from overlapping, thereby ensuring a sparse earth model. Real data results show that a portion of a shallow‐marine data set c...