A non-balanced staggered-grid finite-difference scheme for the first-order acoustic VTI equation modeling

• Published in: Journal of applied geophysics 2020-07, Vol.178, p.104058, Article 104058
• Main Authors: Liang, Wenquan, Lan, Guoguan, Cao, Jingjie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Finite difference scheme; First-order wave equation; Staggered-grid; VTI
• ISSN: 0926-9851; 1879-1859
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2020.104058

Numerically solving wave equation is widely used to seismic modeling, migration and inversion. It is important to improve the simulation efficiency while still preserving high accuracy. Different from the balanced staggered-grid finite-difference (SGFD) scheme for the first-order acoustic vertical transversely isotropic (VTI) equation modeling, we propose a non-balanced FD scheme which uses the second-order SGFD operator for part of the spatial derivatives in the first-order VTI wave equation to improve the simulation efficiency. Meanwhile, we compute the SGFD coefficient from the normal-grid FD coefficient. Compared with the balanced SGFD scheme, the non-balanced SGFD scheme could save simulation time. The efficiency and accuracy of the proposed SGFD scheme are demonstrated by the dispersion analysis and numerical simulation. •We extend the non-balanced SGFD scheme to the acoustic VIT equation.•We determine the FD coefficient of the non-balanced SGFD scheme from the normal-grid FD scheme•Compared with the previous normal-grid FD scheme, the non-balanced SGFD scheme provides additional information vx and vz.•Compared with the previous SGFD scheme, the non-balanced SGFD scheme saves simulation time without sacrifice accuracy.