Elastic time-lag full-waveform inversion using OBN data in shallow water environments

Shallow water environments pose challenges for seismic inversion due to hard water-bottoms and near-surface complexities causing guided waves and elastic effects. Conventional acoustic-based full-waveform inversion (FWI) struggles in such conditions. This study demonstrates a time-lag FWI workflow using ocean-bottom node data from the North Sea. The approach models shallow heterogeneities accurately, producing clearer subsurface images. Elastic FWI further enhances deeper structures, particularly in complex chalk formations, offering superior event continuity and signal-to-noise ratios compared to traditional methods.