Regularization of the AVO inverse problem by means of a multivariate Cauchy probability distribution

• Author / Creator

  Alemie, Wubshet M.

• Amplitude Variation with O set (AVO) inversion is one of the techniques that is being used to estimate subsurface physical parameters such as P-wave velocity, S-wave velocity, and density or their attributes. AVO inversion is an ill-conditioned problem which has to be regularized in order to obtain a stable and unique solution. In this thesis, a Bayesian procedure that uses a Multivariate Cauchy distribution as a prior probability distribution is introduced. The prior includes a scale matrix that imposes correlation among the AVO attributes and induces a regularization that provokes solutions that are sparse and stable in the presence of noise. The performance of this regularization is demonstrated by both synthetic and real data examples using linearized approximations to the Zoeppritz equations.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Regularization
  • Bivariate Cauchy
  • Multivariate Cauchy
  • Trivariate Cauchy
  • Bayesian inversion
  • AVO inversion
  • AVO

• Graduation date

  Spring 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3MS9S

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.