GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 59, NO. 6 (JUNE 1994); P. 983-999, 11 FIGS., 1 TABLE.

A theory of normal moveout

Richard J. Castle*
ABSTRACT Three geophysical principles are shown to be sufficient to determine the most general, practical normal moveout (NMO) equation. The principles are reciprocity in a common midpoint (CMP) gather, finite slowness, and exact constant velocity limit. The resulting equation is the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation that has three parameters. Comparisons at both near and far offsets between the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation and the results for layered media assign geophysical meaning to the parameters. Two of the parameters, zero offset time and NM0 velocity, are constants and control the very near offset behavior. The third parameter is dimensionless and controls the far offset behavior of the NM0 curve, but it may be a function of offset so as to exactly fit any traveltime curve. The parameters may be found by a linear least-squares fit to data. The theory applies to all offsets for nonturning wave reflections in an isotropic earth for both P-waves and converted (P - SV) waves.

is the interval velocity of the kth layer and is where the vertical traveltime in the kth layer. Geometrically, this NM0 equation describes a hyperbola that is symmetric about the t-axis and has asymptotes that intersect at the origin of the coordinate system (x = 0, t = 0). Figure 2 illustrates this geometry. The solid curve, labeled true, is a ray-traced traveltime curve from a is the layered-earth model. The dashed curve, labeled Dix NM0 curve for the model, where the rms velocity of the model has been used in evaluating equation (1). The asymptotes of the Dix NM0 curve are shown as dashed lines. That the Dix NM0 equation is a small offset approximation is evident from this figure. Bolshix (1956), again working with a layered-earth model, obtained the NM0 equation

INTRODUCTION The normal moveout (NMO) equation in use throughout the industry today, where the time-weighted moments of the velocity distribution are given by

(1) originated with Dix (1955) as a small offset approximation for a horizontally layered-earth model, as shown in Figure 1. In this equation, t is the traveltime from the source to the reflector and back to the receiver, is the two-way vertical traveltime from the surface to the reflector,x is the distance from the shot to the receiver, and

refer to the standard NM0 formula as the Dix NM0 equation and the Dix formula as the relation between interval velocities and rms velocities for a horizontally layered medium.

Presented at the 58th Annual International Meeting, Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Manuscript received by the Editor May 13, 1993; revised manuscript received October 22, 1993. *Chevron Petroleum Technology Company, P.O. Box 446, La Habra, CA 90633-0446. 1994 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.
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Equation (3) is presented as the first four and = terms of a Taylors series expansion of traveltime as a function of offset. Bolshix does not give a formula for calculating all the terms of this series, although he does indicate how they might be derived one at a time. Taner and Koehler (1969) give the following equation for .

are given by equation (4). Although and the coefficients Taner and Koehler give explicit expressions for only the first five they give a recursion relation that can be used to find the rest. Equation (5) is an exact series expansion of t However, this radius of convergence of this series is unknown. If Bolshixs equation is squared and then compared with the equation of Taner and Koehler, it is seen that the two disagree in the sixth order term. It will be shown later in this paper that the sixth order term in Bolshixs equation is in error. Malovichko (1978, 1979), apparently unaware that there was anything wrong with Bolshixs equation, recognized that Bolshixs equation constituted the first four terms of Gausss hypergeometric series, which has a known analytic sum. Assuming that if Bolshixs equation were extended to more terms, it would still closely mimic Gausss hypergeometric series, Malovichko derived the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation

FIG. 2. Geometry of Dix NM0 equation.

Geometrically, this NM0 equation describes a hyperbola that is symmetric about the t-axis and has asymptotes that This curve is a shifted hyperbola intersect at = t = in the sense that it is a Dix NM0 curve shifted in time by Figure 3 illustrates this geometry. The solid curve, labeled true, is the same ray-traced traveltime curve shown in Figure 2. The dashed curve, labeled shifted, is the shifted hyperbola NM0 curve for the model. The asymptotes are shown as dashed lines. Comparing Figures 2 and 3, it is evident that the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is a better fit to the ray-traced curve than is the Dix NM0 equation. It is also clear that the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation, like the Dix NM0 equation, is a small offset approximation. However, Malovichkos derivation of this equation, unlike Dixs derivation of the Dix NM0 equation, does not give an understanding of the nature of this approximation. That a shifted hyperbola is a more accurate NM0 equation than the Dix NM0 equation was shown by de Bazelaire (1988) using arguments from geometrical optics. These arguments, however, do not give formulas that relate the subsurface geology to the constants in the NM0 equation.

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Castle (1988) derived Malovichkos result from first principles and showed that when represented as a series in t equation (10) is exact through fourth order in offset, while the Dix NM0 equation is exact only through second order in offset. Ohanian (1993) extended de Bazelaires analysis and obtained Malovichkos result. In this paper, I argue that the mathematical form of the most general practical NM0 equation can be determined The from a few simple geophysical principles or idea of practicality is central to the argument; I do not seek a solution to the traveltime problem for any arbitrary earth model. NM0 is a concept peculiar to the problem of stacking data and to making some comment as to the subsurface velocity structure. If this cannot be done with a simple formula, then NM0 and stacking become impractical and prestack migration is used. Thus, my approach is to look for the most general NM0 formula that meets a few simple geophysical requirements that I feel are necessary for NM0 to be useful. My conclusion is that the most general, practical NM0 equation is the shifted hyperbola equation. This conclusion reflects common experience. Imagine poking a stick to the bottom of a still stream. One sees the stick bending at the air-water interface, and the bottom of the stick appears closer than it really is. This closer appearance is just the shift term in the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation, and the fact that the stick still appears straight, in the water layer, means that the raypaths still appear straight, hence the hyperbolic term. Careful calculation and knowledge of velocity functions are necessary to get the shifted hyperbola parameters, but the form of the equation is foretold by the stick in the water. In the next section, What Must an NM0 Equation Look Like?, the argument for the general form of an NM0 equation is presented. This section also shows how to produce more elaborate shifted hyperbola NM0 equations by allowing the parameter S to be a function of offset. The section, Stacking and Velocity Analysis, examines stacking and velocity analvsis for shifted hvperbolas. The final sec-

tion, Converted Waves, shows how to apply shifted hyperbola theory to converted waves. Mathematical derivations are in the appendixes. The longest, Appendix A, NM0 for a Layered Earth, contains the derivation for a layered-earth model of an exact series expansion (Result 4) of traveltime as a function of offset; this is a new result. The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is then derived as a small offset approximation to this series, and the Dix and shifted hyperbola NM0 equations are compared with the exact series (Result 5). Appendix B, Radius of Convergence for NM0 Power Series, is a discussion of the radii of convergence of the NM0 series derived in Appendix A. Appendix C, Residual Normal Moveout, presents an addition theorem for NM0 (Result 6), and Appendix D, The Effect of a Datum Shift, gives a formula for relating velocities measured at different datums (Result 7). Both of these results are new. WHAT MUST AN NM0 EQUATION LOOK LIKE? NM0 is a practical pursuit with three objectives: to align events on a CMP gather to improve the S/N of the stacked data, to form a stack that is a good approximation to a zero offset section, and to provide a measurement of the subsurface velocity. An NM0 formula is an approximate equation that relates offset and traveltime. To be useful, the approximation must be good enough to adequately stack data. The following three geophysical assertions about the nature of NM0 equations provide a basis for determining the mathematical form of NM0 equations. Assertion 1, Reciprocity On a common midpoint (CMP) gather, the traveltime curve of a reflection event is symmetric about the time axis. Mathematically this means that time is an even function of offset. Assertion 2, Finite slowness For all offsets and all times, the slowness dt/dx is finite. Another way of saying this is that the apparent velocity is never zero. Assertion 3, Constant velocity limit In the limit as the earth velocity approaches constant velocity, an NM0 equation must approach the exact result, lim v where is the zero-offset time and v is the velocity of the medium. This assertion reflects the fact that although we stack data over areas where the velocity varies by factors of two or three, the rate of change of velocity is slow. For this reason, true NM0 curves look a lot like constant velocity NM0 curves. If this were not true, NM0 and stacking as is now practiced by the industry would not work. Let us assume that an NM0 equation can be written as t

FIG. 3. Geometry of shifted hyperbola NM0 equation.

(15)

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This form satisfies the reciprocity assertion. Furthermore, assume that both and are polynomials:

bola NM0 equation for a layered-earth is given in Appendix A, where it is shown how to calculate the parameters from the velocity function. The next order of approximation is

which can be solved for the NM0 equation where h is some function of x2. This equation does not satisfy Assertion 3 because as the velocity model approaches constant velocity, the cube root does not approach a square root. The problem is that the coefficient of t3 in equation (26) is assumed to be nonzero when solving for t to get equation (27), but this coefficient must go to zero for constant velocity. Mathematically, this can be handled by taking limits, but for a NM0 formula to be practical, arithmetic must suffice for its evaluation. Geophysically, Assertion 3 is stating the empirical fact, based on decades of stacking data, that reflection traveltime curves, mostly, look a lot like hyperbolas. Thus, a practical NM0 formula will reduce to a hyperbola for constant velocity. This objection occurs for all higher order approximations than the shifted hyperbola. Thus we conclude: Result 1 implies t = it follows from equation (15) that and, hence, The general form of a practical NM0 equation is that of a shifted hyperbola. In Appendix A it is shown that for a layered earth, the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is exact through fourth order in offset for t2 as a series expansion in offset. Thus, the shifted hyperbola formulation of NM0 is a better small offset approximation, t = + + + error, than is the = + + error. Dix NM0 formulation, That a shifted hyperbola is a good representation of far offset behavior can be seen from Figure 4. In this figure, is near critical, so that sin assume that Changing a few degrees either way does not change the traveltime t = cos much, so that can be taken is near critical. However, small as some constant when changes in induce large changes in the traveltime in the second layer, But,

The reason for considering an NM0 equation of the form of equation (15) where f and g are both polynomials is practical for it allows the coefficients to be found from a linear leastsquares fit to data. The finite slowness assertion places a condition on the relationship between f and g. From equations (15), and (17) the slowness is

For the slowness to remain finite in this limit, we require (20) In other words, the highest power of cannot exceed the highest power of t. The first approximation of the kind we have been considering is (21) which can be solved for t to get the shifted hyperbola NM0 formula,

= where hyperbola:

Thus the total traveltime is a shifted

where the standard shifted hyperbola NM0 equation parameters are given in terms of a, b, and c. This equation satisfies all three assertions. A direct derivation of the shifted hyper-

FIG. 4. Two-layered earth model for long offset discussion.

A Theory of Normal Moveout where the function S(x) is given by

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A little thought shows that the same argument holds for layers, the only change is that the raypath for is no longer straight. We have seen that for a layered-earth the shifted hyperworks for both both small and bola representation of large offsets. However, and are functions of offset. For example, in Figure 4 the velocity is for small offsets for offsets such that is near critical. Result 5, and Appendix A, shows that for reasonable offsets, this behavior can be described by the following form of the shifted hyperbola formula:

and the constant

is defined by the small offset limit,

in the layered-earth calculations has been In this result, because there is no reason to assume that replaced by this constant is in general rms velocity. Inserting the exact series from Result 4 of Appendix A into equation (30) gives S as a function of offset for a layered-earth:
-

where = is a constant. Using the binomial theorem to expand the square root and keeping terms only through second order in offset gives the small offset behavior of the equation: shifted hyperbola (29) Thus, the small offset behavior of equation (28) does not depend upon S. The role of S is to prescribe the offset equabehavior of the terms in the shifted hyperbola tion; hence, although constant S in the shifted hyperbola formula fits large offsets better than the Dix NMO formula, we can fit a traveltime curve exactly by allowing S to vary I define with offset. From equation

2k S(x) =

00
k=l

2k

To second order in offset, equation (37) is

s + =

where

(30)
where t(x) is the exact traveltime curve. The most general form of the shifted hyperbola NMO equation is (31) where the offset dependence is explicit. From Result 1 this equation applies to all earth models. We now assume that the conclusion of the immediately preceding argument about layered-earth models is true, in general, to obtain the following: Result 2 The offset dependence of and in equation (31) is (32) and the are given by equation (4). Figure 5 shows the results of a modeling experiment that

FIG. 5. Error curves for four NMO equations.

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illustrates the concepts discussed above. The model is a subsurface with velocity function v(z) = 1800 + 0.62, where is depth and mks units are used. The depth of the reflector is 1500 m. In the figure, the abscissa is the ratio of offset to depth of the reflector and the ordinate is the difference between the true traveltime and the NM0 equation. The true traveltime was calculated using equation (2) in Slotnick (1959, 252). Four NM0 equations are shown: the Dix NM0 equation, labeled Dix; the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation with constant S, labeled S; the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation with S given by equation (38), labeled and the exact series expansion, Result 4 of Appendix A, truncated after the x6 term, labeled TS. First consider the truncated exact series. It is almost exact to an offset about equal to the depth of the reflector, after which it precipitously diverges from the true traveltime. This rapid divergence occurs because the slowness of the truncated series grows as x5. It is this effect that inspired Assertion 2 above (C. W. Frasier, private communication). The Dix NM0 curve is almost exact to an offset of about half the depth of the reflector, while the shifted hyperbola NM0 curve with constant S is about exact to an offset equal to the depth of the reflector. In fact, the shifted hyperbola curve is a better approximation than the Dix curve at all offsets. However, neither of these curves diverges from the true travel as fast as the truncated series because their slownesses approach a constant for large offset. This shifted hyperbola NM0 curve with S given by equation (38) is about exact to an offset of about 1.5 times the depth of the reflector, after which it diverges. The pole at does not cause the NM0 curve to become unx = Thus defining S by equation bounded since t = (38) produces an NM0 equation that is close to exact for offsets about half the depth of the reflector larger than for constant S, but then diverges more quickly. The reason for the quick divergence is that the series in equation (37) are Also, see Appendix B for a truncated to form discussion of the radii of convergence of these series. STACKING AND VELOCITY ANALYSIS The preceding section illustrated the use of the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation to predict the traveltime curve of a given layered-earth model. We now turn to the practical stacking problem: given a traveltime curve, how well can the curve be described by the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation, and how good a measurement of rms velocity can be made? In the following argument, no assumption about the subsurface is made when discussing the fitting of a shifted hyperbola NM0 curve to data, but a layered, isotropic earth is assumed when discussing the measurement of V The starting point in equation (28), which can be written as (42) where V is rms velocity. Equation (42) is the fundamental equation for performing a least-squares fit of a shifted hyperbola to data. If we set S = 1, then equation (42)

= which fits a Dix hyperbola to becomes the data, with the stacking velocity and zero offset time respectively. For Dix given by V = and = NMO, the stacking velocity and rms velocity are taken to be the same. If S is an unknown constant, then

which fits the data to a shifted hyperbola with constant S. The shifted hyperbola parameters are given by

For very long offsets it may be necessary to allow S to be a function of offset. Such an S must be a function of an even power of offset to satisfy Assertion 1. It might seem that S = + would be a good first choice for S as a function of offset. However, if this choice of S is inserted into equation (28), then for large offsets, the functional form of the NM0 equation is

which is ungeophysical. Equation (38) suggests S when equation (42) becomes (51) Solving for t:

It follows directly that

The limit of equation (52) for small offset is

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which, when compared with equation (29), gives

for the rms velocity. This technique for deriving NM0 equations may be extended to S as a rational polynomial of higher orders of offset if necessary. Result 3 The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation in the form given by equation (42) may be fit to data in the following manner: 1) If constant S is adequate, use equations (43)-(49) to fit a shifted hyperbola to data. 2) If S must be a rational polynomial in x2, as shown in equation (50), use equations (51)-(55) to fit a shifted hyperbola to data. 3) If S as a rational polynomial of higher orders of offset is required, then the following technique, which was used may be used: to derive equations a) Write S as a rational polynomial of even powers of offset. The highest power of offset in both the numerator and the denominator must be the same for the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation to be geophysical in the far offset limit. Insert S-into equation (42). Multiplying the resulting equation by the denominator of S and collecting terms will result in an equation that can be fit to the data by least squares. + bt + c) Write the equation in the previous item as c = 0 and use the quadratic formula to get the NM0 formula. d) Setting offset to zero in this NM0 formula gives the zero offset time. e) Expand the NM0 formula as a series expansion in offset, keeping only the constant and the x2 terms. Comparing this result with equation (29) gives a . relation for 6 and 7 illustrate these results with a simple two-layer earth model. The earth model is shown in Figure 6. This model was ray traced to determine the true NM0 curve. Offset was evenly sampled from zero to 20 km in increments of 100 m. Since the depth to the reflector is 2 km, the maximum offset corresponds to an offset to depth ratio of 10: 1. A Dix NM0 hyperbola, a shifted hyperbola with constant S, and a shifted hyperbola with S given by equation (50) were fit to this NM0 curve using the tech-

niques of Result 3. The results are shown in Figure 7. Plotted in this figure is the difference between the true traveltime and the traveltime predicted by the least-squares fit of the data to the various NM0 hyperbolas. Figures 7a-7c show the individual results, and Figure 7d shows the composite of all three. Note the different vertical scales. From Figure 7, it is clear that the progression Dix, to constant S shifted hyperbola, to shifted hyperbola with S given by equation (50), is a significant improvement in matching the data at each step. The Dix hyperbola does not produce an acceptable stack; the shifted hyperbola with constant S would produce a marginally acceptable stack; and the S(X) shifted hyperbola produces a good stack. In addition to producing a stack, the fitting of an NM0 curve to data is used as a measurement of rms velocity. The results of the velocity measurements for the data from the model in Figure 6 are shown in Figure 8. The ordinate is the measured rms velocity from the fit of a Dix NM0 hyperbola, labeled Dix, from a shifted hyperbola with constant S, labeled S, and from a shifted hyperbola with S given by equation (50), labeled S(X). The abscissa is the maximum offset used for the fit. The progression Dix, to constant S shifted hyperbola, to shifted hyperbola with S given by equation (50), is a significant improvement in measuring rms velocity. CONVERTED WAVES To apply shifted hyperbola theory to converted waves, the equivalence between the traveltime of the reflected ray shown in Figure 9a and the transmitted ray shown in Figure 9b is used. Because of this equivalence, the traveltime of the reflected ray in Figure 9c is exactly twice that of the reflected ray in Figure 9a. Hence Result 2 holds for converted waves with 2 (56) where and are the P-wave zero offset time and rms and are the S-wave zero offset time and rms velocity, + is the converted wave = velocity, and zero-offset time. The relation for the velocity moments of Appendix A is

FIG. 6. Two-layered earth model for example of leastsquares fitting of NM0 curves.

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FIG. 7. Error plots for fitting NM0 curves to two-layered model data: (a) Dix NM0 equation; (b) shifted hyperbola NM0 equation with constant S; (c) shifted hyperbola NM0 e uation with S a rational polynomial in x 2 ; (d) composite of a-c.

FIG. 9. Converted wave raypaths.

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REFERENCES Abramowitz, M., and Stegun, I. A., 1964, Handbook of mathematical functions with formulas, graphs, and mathematical tables: National Bureau of Standards Applied Mathematics Series, 55, U.S. Government Printing Office. de Bazelaire, E., 1988, Normal moveout revisited-Inhomogeneous media and curved interfaces: Geophysics, 53, 142-58. Bolshix, C. F., 1956, Approximate model for the reflected wave traveltime curve in multilayered media: Applied Geophysics, 15, 3-14, (in Russian). Castle, R. J., 1988, Shifted hyperbolas and normal moveout: Presented at the 58th Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 894-896. Dix, C. H., 1955, Seismic velocities from surface measurements: Geophysics, 20, 68-86. Malovichko, A. A., 1978, A new representation of the traveltime curve of reflected waves in horizontally layered media: Applied Geophysics, 91, 47-53, (in Russian). - 1979, Determination of the zero offset effective velocity and the degree of velocity nonhomogeneity from a single reflected wave traveltime curve in the case of a horizontally layered media: Applied Geophysics, 95, 35-44, (in Russian). Ohaman, V., 1993, Virtual images and normal moveout: Presented at the 63rd Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 1126-l 129. Slotnick, M. M., 1959, Lessons in seismic computing: Soc. Expl. Geophys. Taner, M. T., and Koehler, F., 1969, Velocity spectra-digital computer derivation and applications of velocity functions: Geophysics, 34, 859-881. Todorov, P. G., 1979, New explicit formulas for the coefficients of p-symmetric function: Proc. Am. Math. Soc., 79. di Todorov, P. G., 1983, Inverting power series by means of the Bruno precise formula: Plovdivski Universitet . Nauchni Trudove, 21, 103-108 (in Bulgarian).

CONCLUSIONS It is possible to determine the most general practical NM0 equation from the three geophysical requirements of reciprocity, finite slowness, and correspondence with the limit of a constant velocity earth. The result, equation (31), is the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation. The three offset depenand in this equation dent coefficients, may be expressed, equations (32)-(34), as functions of two constants, zero-offset time and NM0 velocity, and the single function S(X) given by equation (35). Equation (35) may be viewed as a prescription for finding the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation that will exactly match any given traveltime curve. The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation may be fit to data using linear least-squares techniques by choosing S(x) to be a rational polynomial of powers of x2, where the highest power of x is the same in both the numerator and the denominator. Result 3 is a prescription for formulating the least-squares problem and for finding the zero-offset time and NM0 velocity. For a layered medium, the NM0 velocity is an estimate of rms velocity. NM0 for converted waves may also be done using shifted hyperbola theory.

APPENDIX A NM0 FOR A LAYERED EARTH This section is divided into three parts. The first presents the derivation of the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation for the horizontally layered earth model. The second part compares the Dix NM0 equation and the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation. The last shows that there is a natural, dimensionless parameter describe NMO. Derivation for horizontally layered earth model Figure 1 shows the raypath for a reflection in a horizontally layered earth. The shot is at S, the reflection point is R, and the geophone is at G. The shot to receiver offset isx and the shot to receiver midpoint M lies directly above the reflection point. Hence, the line MR is perpendicular to the line SMG. Since the angle of reflection equals the angle of incidence, the ascending raypath is the reflection of the descending raypath about the line MR. What I propose to do is calculate the traveltime from S to R to G as a function of the offset x. Starting with the traveltime equations in parametric form, an exact NM0 equation is derived where traveltime is given as a series expansion in offset. This equation is a new result. Next, the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is derived as an approximation to the exact result. An exact series expansion for NMO.-The starting point for this derivation is the parameteric equations for traveltime and offset as functions of ray parameter, Slotnick (1959):

where t is traveltime, x is offset,p is ray parameter, is the is the velocity in layer k, and is thickness of layer k, the number of layers. These equations are valid for all values 1 for all Using the binomial of p such that theorem to expand the denominators of these equations gives

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and the symbol (2j

! is defined as

In these equations, layer N,

is the two-way vertical traveltime to

where the last equality follows from equation (A-10). To evaluate the coefficients in equation equation (A-4) must be inverted forp as a function of For compactness, define (A-13) so that equation (A-4) becomes

1 and is the 2jth time-weighted moment of the velocity distribution, (A-14) whence, according to equation 12 of Todorov (1983),

So far all the series we have considered have converged as long as critical refraction did not occur. The radius of convergence of the series in equation (A-15) is less general. The discussion of this radius of convergence and the convergence of the remaining series in this section will be put off until Appendix B so as not to distract the reader from the logic of the derivation of the shifted NM0 equation. The coefficients are given by

= Equations (A-3) and (A-4) are parametric equations for normal moveout. Expanding t in a Taylors series about zero offset, x = 0, yields

and the symbol

is defined by

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recursively and, thus, eliminate the need to figure out what the

so that the first four terms of equation (A-25) are

__

(A-30) The first three terms of Bolshixs (1956) NM0 equation, equation (3), agree with this result. The last term of Bolshixs equation is incorrect, being only part of the last term of equation (A-30). If equation (A-30) is now squared and only terms through x6 kept, then the following equation is produced: Differentiating equation (A-15) gives

is the smallest non-negative integer where and + is defined greater than or equal to by equation (A-17). Evaluating equation (A-22) at = 0 gives

Inserting this result into equation (A-12): = (k 0 k even k odd. (A-24) This agrees with the first four terms of the equation derived by Taner and Koehler (1969); the conversion from their notation to mine is The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation.- The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is now derived as an approximation to the exact result given in equation (A-25). This approximation is exact through fourth order and a very good approximation to the sixth order term as well. The meaning of very good approximation will be given in the next section. The starting point is to look at those terms in equation (A-25) and which depend only upon

Thus, from equation (A-9), we get the following theorem: Result 4 An exact normal moveout equation for the horizontally layered earth model is (A-25)

(A-26) Equation (A-25) is a complete solution to the normal moveout problem for a horizontally layered-earth. As a check, this result is now compared with the results published by Taner and Koehler (1969). Using equations (A-16) and (A-13): 1 1 (A-27)

(A-28) 0 (A-29)

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Thus

where the last equality defines the coefficients . The series in equation (A-37) is reminiscent of Gausss hypergeometric series,

The ratio of the coefficients for the series in equations (A-37) and (A-41) are:

Equation (A-45) is the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation. Comparison with Dix NM0 equation Let us now try to estimate the nature of the difference between the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation and the Dix NM0 equation. The shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is 1; 2; equation (A-37) with the series replaced by which has the simple analytical form shown in equation (A-43). If instead of using this simple analytical form for 1; 2; the series expansion equation (A-41) is used, then the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is

The first five are given in Table A-l. From this table it is seen that the series in equations (A-37) and (A-41) are the same through the x2 term. Therefore, if the series in equation (A-37) is replaced with 1; 2; then the resulting expression for t will be the same as in equation (A-41) term. 1; 2; can be summed to a through the simple analytic form, Abramowitz and Stegun [1964, 556, equation 15.1.13]:

The first four terms of equation (A-47) are

The first four terms of the exact NM0 expansion are given in equation (A-30). Let be the difference

Thus the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is exact through vanishes identically for fourth order inx. Also, a constant velocity medium and is small for media with small accelerations, which is true of most geologies. Hence, the

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shifted NM0 equation is also a very good approximation to the sixth order term. To compare the shifted and Dix NM0 equations, square equation (A-48): + + + (A-50) where the first four terms are correct, as was shown in equation (A-31), and the last term is the error in the sixth order term of the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation. The Dix NM0 equation is . (A-51) These two equations show the differences between the shifted and Dix NM0 equations. Both are exact through second order in x; however, the Dix NM0 equation ends with second order in x, while the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is exact through fourth order in x and, for most geologies, presents a very good approximation to the sixth order term as well. The results of this and the previous section are summarized by the following theorem: Result 5 For a horizontally layered-earth model, the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation, 2 where

The natural parameterization of NM0 Result 4 presented an exact NM0 equation. In this result, traveltime is expressed as a series expansion in even powers of offset. Thus, the dimensions of the coefficients are different for every term. What I propose to show in this section is that there is a natural, dimensionless variable that can be used for the expansion parameter, resulting in a series expansion for NM0 in which all the coefficients have the dimensions of time. The offset dependence of every term in the series of equation (A-25) is of the form

has dimension of time. To get a The quantity dimensionless quantity we need to divide by time. The only natural time variable is to. Thus, define the dimensionless parameter by (A-52)

to whence equation (A-25) becomes

(A-53)

and

where

(A-54) This is the natural parameterization of NMO. It can be given geophysical meaning by the following relationship: is exact through fourth order in offset and, for most geologies, a very good approximation through sixth order in offset. offset depth to reflector

APPENDIX B RADIUS OF CONVERGENCE FOR NM0 POWER SERIES What I wish to calculate here is an upper bound for the radius of convergence of the exact normal moveout equation for the horizontally layered-earth, equation (A-25) of Appendix A. This equation results from the parametric equations (A-3) and (A-4) which are valid for all values ofp up to the critical angle. The critical step in going from the parametric equations to the NM0 equation is the inversion of the power series for offset as a function of ray parameter to the power series for ray parameter as a function of offset. Explicitly, given that equation (A-14) is valid for allp such that the rays do not go critical, what is the radius of convergence of equation (A-15). The starting point is equation (A-2). Equation (A-14) is this equation with the right-hand side expanded using the binomial theorem. The expansion is valid as long as the ray does not go critical; that is, c 1 for all k. To discuss the radius of convergence of equation (A-14), we must let x and

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p be complex. Since a power series and the function it represents are the same inside the radius of convergence of the series, we see from equation (A-2) that the radius of convergence of equation (A-14) is 1 max is the largest of the where The radius of convergence, of equation (A-15) the smaller of the two following conditions: (1) smallest value of for which the has a pole, or (2) the radius of the largest disk, centered at the origin, such that the mapping by equation (A-14) lies entirely within of the disk Since a is constrained the disk Letp = to be finite by equation (B-l), we are interested in values of x given by

The result of this limit is a bound on the radius of convergence of equation (A-15)

APPENDIX C RESIDUAL NORMAL MOVEOUT Suppose that NM0 has been removed from an event using the NM0 function or

but that NM0 should have been removed using the function

In this section, I propose to calculate the residual normal moveout (RNMO) which, when applied to data that has had will produce the same NM0 removed according to result that would have been obtained if the original data had had NM0 removed using

The quantity inside the square root may be closely approximated by a perfect square:

The RNMO will be viewed as being composed of two and an offset dependent term, parts: a constant term, so that (C-1) The constant term is given by = = + (0). To show that the second term on the right-hand side of this equation is negligible when compared to the first, the two terms are written in terms of the natural NM0 parameter. The first term on the right-hand side of equation (C-5) is

= (0) and = where The offset dependent term is

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Inserting equations (C-2) and (C-13) into equation (C-l) produces the following theorem about the form of RNMO curves: Result 6 The residual normal moveout left in the data after removing NM0 using the NM0 curve

Combining equations (C-6) and (C-7) gives the right-hand side of equation (C-5) in terms of the natural NM0 parameter:

then the right-hand side of equation (C-5) is approximately a perfect square:

where is the natural NM0 parameter. The geometrical relationships expressed by this theorem are illustrated in Figure C-l. Of particular interest in this figure is the relation that the magnitude AT of the RNMO on This relation is a the far offset trace is equal to consequence of the following observations: 1) The NM0 curve and the data intersect at the point labeled A on the far offset. 2) Removing NM0 using moves the data at point A on the far offset to the point labeled B at zero offset time l 3) To flatten the data curve, the data at point B must be moved to point C at a zero-offset time of = This relation between and the RNMO on the far offset trace, the value of the RNMO on the far offset trace, and the

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value of the RNMO at some other offset is sufficient information to calculate the constants for the RNMO curve. In practice the concept of RNMO is most useful when the velocity function used to initially remove NMO, the function T1 (X) in the above result, is close to being correct. This implies, and is implied by, the condition that in Figure 10 is small, typically not more than 200 ms. If this is 0 because only shifts the NM0 true, then curve and does not change its shape. Thus for most practical applications of RNMO, the approximation = 0 can be made. Making this approximation leads to several simple results. If srnmo = 0, then from equation (C-2), (C-14) From Figure C-l, far offset trace: is equal to minus the RNMO on the

The geometry of this RNMO curve is shown in Figure C-2. may be calculated from the value of the The parameter RNMO curve at the far offset,

Solving this equation for

-AT,

(C-15)

Using these results the proper NM0 curve, to have used to originally stack the data can be calculated:

where AT is positive if Thus the RNMO curve, from equation (C-l) and Result 6, is

FIG. C-l. Geometry of residual normal moveout.

F I G . C-2. Residual normal moveout for approximation.

= 0

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APPENDIX D THE EFFECT OF A DATUM SHIFT One result of the shifted hyperbola NM0 equation is a simple expression for the change in rms velocity implied by a change of datum. The situation envisioned here is a datum shift by an amount so that the new time coordinate is related to the old by From equation (A-46)

where the primed coordinate system is the datum-shifted system. The NM0 curve in the datum-shifted system is

which leads to the following result. Result 7

which implies

The effect of a datum shift, by an NM0 curve is

on the rms velocity implied

(D-1)