Nonlinear seismic imaging via reduced order model backprojection

We introduce a novel nonlinear seismic imaging method based on model order reduction. The reduced order model (ROM) is an orthogonal projection of the wave equation propagator operator on the subspace of the snapshots of the solutions of the wave equation. It can be computed entirely from the knowledge of the measured time domain seismic data. The image is a backprojection of the ROM using the subspace basis for the known smooth kinematic velocity model. The implicit orthogonalization of solution snapshots is a nonlinear procedure that differentiates our approach from the conventional linear methods (Kirchhoff, RTM). It allows for the removal of multiple reflection artifacts. It also enables us to estimate the magnitude of the reflectors similarly to the true amplitude migration algorithms.