Multi-Wave and Full-Waveform Inversion in Southern Oman

With a shallow anhydrite layer, strong multiples and converted wave contamination, Southern Oman represents an outstanding challenge for land velocity model building and imaging. While acoustic land full-waveform inversion (FWI) has proved successful on new broadband datasets in Northern Oman, no successful application has been reported for Southern Oman. We show here that the challenge of acoustic FWI in South Oman can be overcome using a dedicated workflow combining Multi-Wave Inversion (MWI) and multi-Dimensional Optimal Transport FWI (multiD OT-FWI). The key component of the workflow is the very near surface characterization provided by surface wave dispersion curves, which allows delineation of the Rus layer in the initial FWI model. MultiD OT-FWI is then used to mitigate amplitude issues in the presence of short period multiples and reduce cycle skipping beyond the depth of penetration of diving waves.