Geophysical Diffraction Tomography

Diffraction tomography is the generalization of X-ray tomography to applications such as seismic exploration where diffraction effects must be taken into account. In this paper, the foundations of diffraction tomography for offset vertical seismic profiling and well-to-well tomography are presented for weakly inhomogeneous formations for which the Born or Rytov approximations can be employed. Reconstruction algorithms are derived for approximately determining the acoustic or electromagnetic velocity profile of such formations from borehole measurements of acoustic or electromagnetic fields generated by sources located on the surface or in an adjacent borehole. Computer simulations are presented for the case of offset vertical seismic profiling.