Seismic Inversion and Uncertainty Analysis using Transdimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method
Abstract
We use a transdimensional inversion algorithm, reversible jump MCMC (rjMCMC), in the seismic waveform inversion of post-stack and prestack data to characterize reservoir properties such as seismic wave velocity, density as well as impedance and then estimate uncertainty. Each seismic trace is inverted independently based on a layered earth model. The model dimensionality is defined as the number of the layers multiplied with the number of model parameters per layer. The rjMCMC is able to infer the number of model parameters from data itself by allowing it to vary in the iterative inversion process, converge to proper parameterization and prevent underparameterization and overparameterization. We also use rjMCMC to enhance uncertainty estimation since it can transdimensionally sample different model spaces of different dimensionalities and can prevent a biased sampling in only one space which may have a different dimensionality than that of the true model space. An ensemble of solutions from difference spaces can statistically reduce the bias for parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification. Inversion uncertainty is comprised of property uncertainty and location uncertainty. Our study revealed that the inversion uncertainty is correlated with the discontinuity of property in such a way that 1) a smaller discontinuity will induce a lower uncertainty in property at the discontinuity but also a higher uncertainty of the location of that discontinuity and 2) a larger discontinuity will induce a higher uncertainty in property at the discontinuity but also a higher ``certainty'' of the location of that discontinuity. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the property uncertainty and the location uncertainty. To our surprise, there is a lot of hidden information in the uncertainty result that we can actually take advantage of due to this trade-off effect. On the basis of our study using rjMCMC, we propose to use the inversion uncertainty as a novel attribute in an optimistic way to characterize the magnitude and the location of subsurface discontinuities and reflectors.
Subject
seismicinversion
uncertainty
trans-dimensional
reversible-jump
Markov-chain Monte Carlo
MCMC
rjMCMC
Norne
Citation
Zhu, Dehan (2016). Seismic Inversion and Uncertainty Analysis using Transdimensional Markov Chain Monte Carlo Method. Doctoral dissertation, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /158001.