Research on the application of the nonhyperbolic recursive stacking method to complex media

The quality of processing seismic data through multi-parameter stacking technique heavily relies on the accuracy of the stacking operator describing the traveltime moveout. The hyperbolic CRS operator reduces to the NMO hyperbola in the CMP gather and the NMO hyperbolic moveout is only exact for homogeneous media above a planar reflector. The nonhyperbolic multi-parameter stacking operator parameterized by the reflection angle is derived based on the assumption of a circular reflector beneath a homogeneous overburden. This paper makes use of the kinematic wavefield attributes to parameterize the new stacking operator in order to apply it to inhomogeneous media and establish the relationship with CRS stacking procedure. Examples show that this new stacking operator performs well over the full range of subsurface curvatures, from nearly planar reflectors to the diffraction cases.