Three-dimensional seismic full-waveform inversion using the finite-difference contrast source inversion method

We present the extension of the so-called finite-difference contrast-source inversion method for the three-dimensional interpretation of full-waveform seismic data using the acoustic approximation. The finite-difference contrast-source inversion method does not simulate a full forward problem in its inversion process, hence it is computationally more efficient than the standard non-linear inversion methods. Furthermore it allows the use of an inhomogeneous background medium, hence this method has a great potential for carrying out time-lapse seismic inversion. However, the price that we have to pay is the storing of the LU decomposition arrays of the impedance matrix of the background medium. We show some numerical examples to illustrate the (dis) advantages of this method.