Imaging complex structures with separated Up- and Down-going wavefields

Dual sensor streamers record the total pressure and the particle velocity of the seismic wavefields. They allow the data to be accurately separated into up-going and downgoing pressure. These two components can be input to a depth migration that uses primaries and multiples for Separated Wavefield IMaging (SWIM). SWIM increases the surface coverage and subsurface illumination by turning each receiver into a virtual source. This principle is independent of the wave equation propagation algorithm, which can be based on one-way or two-way solutions. SWIM with reverse time migration (RTM) better images the steep dips of the data. On the other hand, SWIM using one-way wave equation migration (WEM) provides an efficient alternative for high-resolution high-frequency imaging.