Full data driven azimuthal inversion for anisotropy characterization

A workflow of azimuthal inversion is presented and successfully applied on a wide-azimuth seismic data. This workflow is based on a novel approach to quantitatively extract anisotropy information in a horizontal transverse isotropic (HTI-) medium. The method was first described by Mesdag (2016) and mimics anisotropic reflectivity behavior by isotropic forward modelling and anisotropy-transformed elastic properties. In this paper a concept of an Azimuthally varying Low Frequency Model (ALFM) is also introduced and demonstrated. The ALFM provides anisotropy information below seismic bandwidth, hereby reducing side-lobes of inverted magnitude of anisotropy, thus allowing for better anisotropy characterization.