GEOPHYSICS, VOL. 58, NO. 1 (JANUARY 1993), P. 47-66, 8 FIGS., 3 TABLES.
True-amplitude imaging and dip moveout
James L. Black*, Karl L. Schleicher** and Lin
ABSTRACT
True-amplitude seismic imaging produces a three
dimensional (3-D) migrated section in which the peak
amplitude of each migrated event is proportional to the
reflectivity. For a constant-velocity medium, the stan-
dard imaging sequence consisting of spherical-diver-
gence correction, normal moveout (NMO), dip move-
out (DMO), and zero-offset migration produces a
true-amplitude image if the DMO step is done cor-
rectly. There are two equivalent ways to derive the
correct amplitude-preserving DMO. The first is to
improve upon Hale’s derivation of F-K DMO by
taking the reflection-point smear properly into ac-
count. This yields a new Jacobian that simply replaces
the Jacobian in Hale’s method. The second way is to
calibrate the filter that appears in integral DMO so as
to preserve the amplitude of an arbitrary 3-D dipping
reflector. This latter method is based upon the 3-D
acoustic wave equation with constant velocity. The
INTRODUCTION
The goal of seismic processing is to produce a true-
amplitude estimate of the earth’s reflectivity in its fully
migrated position. For most interpreters, “true-amplitude”
means that each migrated event’s peak amplitude is propor-
tional to the reflection coefficient, where we use the term
“event” to refer to the processed seismic image correspond-
ing to a given reflector. Ideally, the proportionality constant
between peak amplitude and reflectivity should be the same
for every event on the three-dimensional (3-D) section,
regardless of the depth, dip, or final wavelet. In this paper,
Presented at the 58th Annual International Meeting, Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Manuscript received by the Editor September 3,
1991; revised manuscript received June 16, 1992.
*Formerly Halliburton Geophysical Services, Dallas, TX; presently International Business Machines Corp., 1505 LBJ Freeway, Dallas, TX
75234.
**Halliburton Geophysical Services, P. O. Box 5019, Sugarland, TX 77487
Geophysics Dept., Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, presently International Business Machines Corp., 1505 LBJ Freeway,
Dallas, TX 75234.
© 1993 Society of Exploration Geophysicists. All rights reserved.
47
resulting filter amounts to a simple modification of
existing integral algorithms. The new F-K and integral
DMO algorithms resulting from these two approaches
turn out to be equivalent, producing identical outputs
when implemented in nonaliased fashion. As dip in-
creases, their output become progressively larger than
the outputs of either Hale’s F-K method or the integral
method generally associated with Deregowski and
Rocca. This trend can be observed both on model data
and field data.
There are two additional results of this analysis,
both following from the wave-equation calibration on
an arbitrary 3-D dipping reflector. The first is a proof
that the entire imaging sequence (not just the DMO
part) is true-amplitude when the DMO is done cor-
rectly. The second result is a handy formula showing
exactly how the zero-phase wavelet on the final mi-
grated image is a stretched version of the zero-phase
deconvolved source wavelet. This result quantita-
tively expresses the loss of vertical resolution due to
dip and offset.
we will explicitly show how to accomplish this goal for the
case of constant velocity and point sources/receivers. The
key to reaching our goal is making dip-moveout (DMO) an
amplitude-preserving process.
In this paper, we will assume that the seismic data have
been processed so as to remove the source signature,
instrument response, multiples, ghosts, and noise. The focus
of our attention is achieving true-amplitude processing in the
seismic imaging steps as shown in Figure 1, when the
velocity is constant. In particular, we will analyze the
following familiar 3-D imaging steps, which we call the
“standard sequence”:
48 Black et al.
1) Spherical-divergence (spreading loss) correction,
2) Normal-moveout correction (NMO),
3) 3-D dip-moveout correction (DMO), and
4) 3-D zero-offset (exploding-reflector) migration.
We are, of course, not the first to ask how to make the
standard sequence (or something close to it) produce true-
amplitude images. The exploding reflector concept (Loe-
wenthal et al., 1976) gave an intuitively appealing approach
to the kinematics of zero-offset migration, but never fully
addressed the amplitude question at zero-offset, much less at
finite offset. The introduction of DMO (Deregowski and
Rocca, 1981) into the sequence in the last decade has finally
made it possible to address the amplitude question for
arbitrarily-dipping events at finite offsets. An early attempt
was made by Yilmaz and Claerbout (1980) to decompose the
double-square-root prestack migration method into NMO,
DMO, and zero-offset migration. Likewise Deregowski and
Rocca (1981) made a preliminary connection between DMO
and the double-square-root equation in their landmark pa-
per. Finally, Hale (1983) made a much more thorough effort
to do the same thing in an unpublished chapter of his Ph.D.
thesis. Unfortunately, all three of these efforts fell short of
producing a definition of DMO that would allow the standard
sequence to simultaneously treat both horizontal and dipping
events’ amplitudes properly.
As a consequence, DMO algorithm development retreated
to a more defensible position: guaranteeing that kinematics
(i.e., event positioning) were correct for all events, but
ensuring that amplitudes were correct at most for horizontal
events only. Thus Deregowski and Rocca (1981, pp. 397-8)
and Deregowski (1985, 1986, 1987) proposed various calibra-
tions of the integral DMO method but could make no
definitive statement on amplitude preservation for arbitrarily
dipping data. Hale’s (1984) F-K algorithm handled ampli-
tudes reasonably well, and Berg (1984) developed an integral
technique based upon it. Hale (1991) has recently derived an
Fig. 1. Processing flow diagram for the standard imaging sequence. showing the wave-equation calibration
procedure for a dipping reflector.
improved integral DMO from this F-K technique that pre-
serves amplitudes on horizontal events even when spatial
aliasing of the DMO operator is important. Nevertheless the
handling of dipping-event amplitudes differs among all of
these algorithms. Furthermore it turns out that all of these
algorithms yield amplitudes that are too small for dipping
events.
In this paper, we establish three results for true-amplitude
seismic imaging. First of all, we produce a revised DMO
technique that preserves peak amplitudes on horizontal and
dipping data equally well. We explicitly demonstrate the
form this technique takes in both F-K and integral imple-
mentations in three dimensions. Second, we establish that
the standard processing sequence is a true-amplitude proce-
dure when it includes this revised DMO method. Thus we
clear up any lingering doubts about the validity of exploding-
reflector migration algorithms and spherical-divergence cor-
rections. Finally, we compute an explicit expression for the
wavelet-stretch factor that controls the vertical resolution on
the migrated image.
The casual reader should skip directly to Table 2 and
equations (51) and (52) for a summary of the main results of
this paper. For the more dedicated reader, the outline of this
paper follows. In the first two sections we define our
notation and what we mean by true-amplitude processing. In
the next section we reexamine Hale’s (1984) derivation of
two-dimensional (2-D) F-K DMO and make it amplitude-
preserving by including reflection-point smear completely,
as has previously been presented by one of us (Zhang, 1988).
In the following section, we carry out a complete amplitude
analysis of a planar reflector with arbitrary dip in three
dimensions. Using the solution of the 3-D acoustic wave
equation as our starting point, we calibrate the entire stan-
dard processing sequence to achieve true-amplitude process-
ing, as has been previously presented by one of us (Black
and Egan, 1988; Black and Wason, 1989). [Note that Black
and Egan (1988) contains an error which this work corrects.]
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout 49

The major part of this calibration is the 3-D derivation of contains an event whose peak amplitude occurs
amplitude-preserving DMO, this time stated as an integral at = For the sake of conciseness, we have
DMO rather than an F-K DMO. At the end of this section, suppressed the half-offset argument h in all variables.
we show that the entire calibrated standard sequence is
true-amplitude, and we derive an explicit expression for the HOW TO MAKE AMPLITUDE GLOBALLY PROPORTIONAL
wavelet-stretch factor. In the section entitled “Summary of TO REFLECTIVITY
DMO Methods,” we use the connection between integral
Before going further, we need to clearly define what we
and F-K DMO in Appendix C to conclude that our F-K and
integral techniques are equivalent to each other. This leads mean by “amplitude proportional to reflectivity” in the
presence of band-limited wavelets. This phrase is a little
to Table 2, which summarizes four DMO algorithms: as
described in this paper, Hale’s, a generic form of tricky because the zero-phase image wavelet on the final
Deregowski and Rocca’s integral method, and the Bleistein- migrated section must vary from event to event. This varia-
tion is illustrated in Figure 2, which shows correct process-
Liner method (Liner, 1989; Bleistein, 1990). In the final
ing of two events that have the same reflectivity and the
sections, we examine the outputs produced by three of these
same deconvolved zero-phase source wavelet but which
four DMO algorithms acting on model and field data. We
have different image wavelets. The convolved with
show that our amplitude-preserving DMO maintains the
reflector 1 has a higher bandwidth than the convolved
peak amplitudes of both horizontal and dipping data, a
with reflector 2. Why? The answer is that nonvertical
necessary condition for the entire standard sequence to be
raypaths cause some of the vertical resolution in the decon-
true-amplitude.
volved source wavelet w(t) to be traded for lateral resolution
Much of the development of this paper is contained in four
(Wu and Toksöz, 1987). This means that the vertical resolu-
appendices. Appendix A establishes the kinematic identities
tion in the image wavelet is generally lower than in the
relating the DMO times and midpoints. Appendix B contains
source wavelet. It also means that the image wavelet de-
the mathematics required to evaluate the stationary-phase
pends upon whatever factors influence the raypaths, such as
integral that defines our amplitude-preserving integral DMO.
dip, velocity, depth, and offset. It turns out that the best
Appendix C details the asymptotic relationship between F-K
DMO and integral DMO. Finally Appendix D gives the
mathematical details necessary to perform Stolt zero-offset
migration for a 3-D dipping reflector.
IMAGE OF TWO EVENTS
NOTATIONAL CONVENTIONS
WITH SAME REFLECTIVITY
For the sake of continuity with the existing DMO litera-
ture, we have followed Hale’s (1984) notation as much as
possible. For example, we use to denote time on the
zero-offset section, However, our focus on
amplitude preservation, on three dimensions, and on the
entire standard sequence has made it necessary to extend
Hale’s notation. Thus the midpoint position on the zero-
offset section is called rather than y, where we use
boldface to indicate a vector quantity. Table 1 summarizes
our conventions, listing each processing step, the output
section from each step, and the planar event time after each
step. For completeness, the table begins with the step
“wave-equation generation’’ whose output is the seismic
section that is input to the standard sequence. Note that
“Latin” times such as are independent variables serving
as arguments, whereas “Greek” times such as are
dependent variables expressing the traveltimes of a dipping
event as a function of midpoint. For example, the section

Table 1. Notational conventions, showing the output section

and the event time following each stage in the standard
sequence.

FIG. 2. Effect of raypath obliquity on the wavelet. The

dipping event with sloping raypath has a more stretched
(lower frequency) image wavelet than the event with a
vertical raypath. Lower part of figure shows same result in
the frequency domain.
50 Black et al.
achievable migrated image is the convolution of the
earth’s reflectivity, with a band-
limited event-dependent image wavelet, E):
= *
= (1)
where are migrated time and position and where
is the reflectivity, which generally depends upon the
angle shown in Figure 3. The quantity is short for
showing the wavelet’s dependence on time dip D,
migrated event-time and half-offset h. Extracting
the reflectivity from the migrated image P,, is thus not a
simple matter of deconvolving a single, global image wavelet
from equation (1) because is not global.
Despite this fact, we can still define conventions and
processing sequences to make equation (1) yield a global
connection between and R(Q). The most popular con-
vention is already shown in Figure 2, where we have
processed the data so as to obey the following rule: keep the
peak value of the zero-phase image wave/et the same for all events compared to peak-amplitude imaging when the dip is
events. In other words, we can process the data so that the
peak value of is a global constant, w(O), independent of
the values of , and h. This yields the reasonable result
that two events with the same (q-dependent) reflectivity will
have the same peak amplitude in the migrated image, namely
which is what most interpreters have always expected. We
will show how to maintain this convention in this paper. In
fact our wave-equation analysis of a dipping reflector will
establish a simple wavelet-stretch relationship between
and w, namely
= (3)
FIG. 3. DMO raypath geometry for finite-offset and zero-offset, with various traveltimes annotated.
where is the product of three stretch factors corresponding
to NMO, DMO, and zero-offset migration, respectively and
is given by equation (51). Note that equation (3) immediately
implies that the peak amplitude of (i.e., the t = 0 value)
is globally equal to
On the other hand, a Fourier transform of equation (3)
clearly shows that the “peak-amplitude” imaging conven-
tion has resulted in a spectral density in that is increased
by a factor of relative to the spectral density of w(t). This
is shown in the lower part of Figure 2, where the spectral
density of event 2 is higher than that of event 1. This causes
no problem unless the interpreter expects the spectral den-
sities (rather than the peak amplitudes) of all events to be the
same. If we want an imaging convention and processing
sequence that preserve spectral density rather than peak
amplitude, we just need to ensure that equation (3) gets
multiplied by which is accomplished by multiplying the
NMO, DMO, and migration operations by the stretch factors
of A, and cos defined in equations (30), (40), and (50),
respectively. This alternative convention results in weaker
steep or the offset is large, which is why the peak-amplitude
convention is usually preferred.
REVISING HALE’S DERIVATION OF F-K DMO
In this section, we will derive a true-amplitude revision of
Hale’s (1984) F-K DMO technique. This derivation is so
similar to what Hale did that we will review his results first.
Hale’s derivation of F-K DMO
Hale’s derivation begins with the two-dimensional raypath
geometry shown in Figure 3. From the geometry of this
figure, the relation between the zero-offset traveltime,
and the pre-NM0 time at the same midpoint is
found to be (Levin, 1971):
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout 51
Here JH is the Jacobian for the change of variables from
= to and is the phase:

where is the dip angle of the reflector. Hale’s derivation is

a clever heuristic argument in which the distinction between (12)
independent variables and dependent variables in Table 1 is
blurred. Thus Hale makes the following associations: (13)
t = a where we have used the quantity A that Hale defined:

=
which satisfies the simple equation
where

(2
This completes our review of Hale’s derivation of F-K
DMO. Equations (l0)-(14a) are a complete description of his
To begin with, Hale defined NM0 according to the stan- algorithm.
dard mapping:
Corrected derivation of F-K DMO

The subtle flaw in the above derivation is that reflection-

point smear has not been completely taken into account.
where the connection between and t in the second Reflection-point smear (Deregowski, 1982) means that the
equality is obtained from equations (5a), (5b), and (6). Note input event at location in Figure 3 will be repositioned by
that equation (7) preserves peak amplitude rather than DMO to the correct zero-offset location yo. Hale’s method
spectral density and so is consistent with the convention of correctly repositions the event, although this fact is not
this paper. obvious from equation (8) and requires analysis (Hale, 1984)
of equations (l0)-(14) to establish. However, the appearance
The crucial step of Hale’s heuristic derivation is the
of the uncorrected position rather than on the left-hand
following definition of DMO:
side of equation (8) and in equation causes amplitudes of
dipping events to not be preserved, as we show in later
sections.
where equations (4), (5b), (5c), and (6) define the mapping Making these modifications, the new heuristic definition of
between and According to this definition, DMO maps DMO to replace equation (8) is
each sample of from time to time without changing
its midpoint location, . The lack of midpoint change is the
subtle flaw in Hale’s argument.
Carrying on, equation (8) implicitly requires the quantity where equation is changed to
sin because of equation (4), but sin is more conveniently
computed in Fourier space using the well-known identity for
time dip D:
2 sin k and the connection between and in Figure 3
comes from equations (A-6) and (A-4) of Appendix A. The
second equality in equation (16) comes from equation (5b),
Thus after a double Fourier transform, Hale derived F-K which is still valid. Note the correct form of the relationship
DMO to be: between and in equation (16) as opposed to Hale’s
relationship in equation (14a). In addition to the connection
between and equation (15) requires the relationship
between and in Figure 3:

- -

where the first equality comes from and

equations (A-ll), (A-6), and (A-4). The second equality
comes from equations (9) and (5b).
Performing the double Fourier transform as in equation
(11) but now using equation (15), we find the new amplitude-
preserving DMO integral:
52 Black et al.
where JT is the Jacobian, expressed as the determinant of a
2 2 matrix:
(19)
I
obtained by straightforward differentiation of equations (16)
and (17), and is the same phase shift as in equation (13).
Comparing equations (18) and (19) with Hale’s DMO, we
see that the phase shifts are identical but that the Jacobians
differ by a factor of
2A 2
1 1+
JH 1+
Since this ratio is always larger than 1, our modified F-K
DMO always produces outputs that are slightly larger than
those from Hale’s DMO, as we will confirm in a later
section. We will also show there that our modified DMO is
amplitude preserving for all dips, whereas Hale’s method is
strictly amplitude-preserving only for horizontal reflectors.
AMPLITUDE PRESERVATION FOR A DIPPING REFLECTOR
Having just argued for modifying Hale’s well-known F-K
method of DMO, we now begin a second attack on the
problem of amplitudes. This will lead to a less heuristic
derivation of the same amplitude-preserving DMO. This
second approach will also establish that the entire standard
processing sequence is true-amplitude when it contains
amplitude-preserving DMO.
Plan of attack
Figure 1 describes the plan of attack. We begin in three
dimensions with an arbitrary dipping reflector of known
reflectivity where is shown in Figure 3. We then use
the acoustic wave equation with deconvolved zero-phase
source wavelet w(t) to generate the seismic response to this
reflector, h). Next we analytically “process”
h) through the standard sequence shown in Figure 1. We
perform all of the processes except 3-D DMO in absolutely
standard fashion, as detailed below. We do the DMO,
however, with an extra degree of freedom, in the form of a
correction filter. We will choose this filter S to make the final
migrated output have amplitude globally proportional to
Specifically, we will make the choice for S that causes
DMO to preserve the peak amplitude of an arbitrary event.
In fact, with this choice for the DMO correction filter, we
will show that each stage of the standard processing se-
quence preserves the peak amplitude of every event. Thus
our procedure is a wave-equation calibration technique for
constant velocity. Successful calibration for a reflector with
arbitrary dip makes the entire standard sequence amplitude-
preserving, as we shall establish below.
For the purposes of this paper, we will keep the offset
vector h fixed at a constant value and guarantee that P is
adequately sampled in space and time. In other words, we
will analyze adequately sampled common-offset, common-
azimuth subsets of the function P, since we are not con-
cerned here with the (important) questions of spatial aliasing
and missing input data.
3-D wave-equation response for a dipping reflector
We now begin the wave-equation calibration procedure
shown in Figure 1. From the 3-D wave equation, it is known
(Aki and Richards, 1980) that the seismic data collected over
a 3-D dipping planar reflector is given in high-frequency limit
by
=
where w(t) is the fully deconvolved zero-phase source
wavelet whose peak amplitude is w(O), v is the constant
velocity, and is the sum of the distances from the
source to the reflection point, and then to the receiver, as
shown in Figure 3. Note that Figure 3 is still valid in three
dimensions since it is a diagram in the plane containing the
source, receiver, and reflection point. As noted earlier,
depends upon h as well as but we will suppress the h
argument for the sake of concise notation.
Application of spherical divergence and NM0 corrections
We now begin “processing” h) through the
standard sequence with the goal of producing a migrated
image having the true-amplitude property of equation (2).
The first step is to apply a constant-velocity spherical
divergence correction of the standard form:
t
h) h) =
Note that equation (22) yields a whose peak amplitude is
globally proportional to with proportionality constant
w(0):
Thus we will achieve our goal of true-amplitude processing if
we guarantee that each subsequent stage of the standard
processing sequence does not change the peak amplitude on
the section. This is, in fact, what we will do in what follows.
Before proceeding to the NM0 correction, we need to
introduce one additional approximation that will simplify the
subsequent analysis without compromising amplitude pres-
ervation. Since the seismic data is assumed to have been
deconvolved prior to entering the standard sequence, the
wavelet is zero outside a narrow range of times
(50 ms or so) centered at Thus in equation (22), we
can set the ratio to unity without serious effect except
at the shallowest section times. Even at shallow times, this
type of approximation becomes increasingly accurate as we
let t approach to study the peak amplitude behavior of
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout
interest in this work. Thus we will replace equation (22) by
the approximation:
(24)
The next step is to apply normal moveout (NMO) using
the velocity v and the offset magnitude = The peak-
amplitude-preserving form of this correction takes the form
already seen in equation (7):
To evaluate this, we use Levin’s (1971) 3-D generalization of
equation (4), which relates to the zero-offset
two-way traveltime at the midpoint location yn:
(26)
where D is the time dip vector defining the slope of
We also introduce the NMO-correction of
Finally we are ready to substitute equation (24) into equation
(25) and to use equation (28) to eliminate in favor of :
(29)
(30)
To obtain the second (approximate) equality in equation
(29), we employ the same argument used to obtain equation
(24), namely that w(t) is sharply peaked near t = 0. Thus the
peak of w occurs when the two square roots are equal, which
occurs when In the vicinity of this point, it is
valid to approximate the difference of the two square roots
by the first-order term of a Taylor series in powers of
and the first derivative of this difference is the
quantity .
Equation (29) says that consists of the reflectivity
convolved with a “stretched” wavelet centered on the time
Note that the wavelet has been stretched by the
NMO-stretch factor but that its peak amplitude has not
been affected. This means that equation (29) exhibits a peak
amplitude proportional to with global proportionality
constant w(O), just as in equation (23). So far, there have
been no surprises.
Application of integral 3-D DMO
The next, crucial step in the processing of the synthetic
data is to apply 3-D constant-velocity DMO. From earlier
work (Deregowski and Rocca, 1981; Hale, 1983; Hale, 1984,
pp. 67-71; Beasley et al., 1988a), we know the form of the
integral 3-D DMO operation required to make the travel-
53
times in PO be correct: PO must be a line integral along the
shot-receiver direction of a filter S applied to a time-mapping
of P,. This takes the general form:
=
where the line integral along the shot-receiver direction is
parametrized by the coordinate
(32)
with
Note that the time mapping in equation (31) is the familiar
“DMO smile” (Deregowski and Rocca, 1981), shown in
Figure 4 and equation (A-l):
is the notation we have chosen to emphasize the similarity to
= in equation (16) for F-K DMO. Also note that the
occurrence of in equation (3 1) means that we
map the time samples of prior to applying the filter
What we do not know yet is the correct filter S to be
applied to the data in equation (31). It is this filter that we will
determine by requiring peak-amplitude preservation on an
arbitrary dipping reflector. First we make the assumption (to
be verified later) that we can write S as the product of a
to-dependent weight function and a to-independent
filter
= (35a)
Next we introduce a scaled version of PO:
=
Putting equations (35a) and (35b) into equation (31) yields the
double integral we need to perform:
= dt’
The next step in our calibration is to carry out the double
integral in equation (35c), using the dipping-reflector data
defined by equation (29). The integral over t is most easily
performed by Fourier-transforming II0 :
= (36)
We now combine equations (29), (32), (35c), and (36) to
accomplish the t’ integration (using the convolution theo-
rem), yielding
54 Black et al.

and is the value of a($ at the stationary point,

Equation (37) is very general (Black and Wason, 1989) and
could be carried out numerically, with the integral replaced
by a spatial summation, to calibrate DMO amplitudes even
in situations where spatial sampling is marginal (Hale, 1991).
However, with the aim of deriving a simple analytic result,
we have chosen to evaluate equation (37) by the method of
stationary phase, which is strictly valid only when spatial
aliasing is not a serious issue and when offsets are large
compared with where Ax is the CDP interval.
This stationary-phase evaluation of equation (37) is carried
out in Appendix B and relies on the kinematic identities
derived in Appendix A. The result is
given by equation (A-4):
= (40)
where is the 3-D time dip projected onto the
shot-receiver axis. Note that is equal to Hale’s
quantity A, defined in equation (14), when we use the correct
3-D form of the dip D l in place of D.
Now comes a key step. Inspection of equations (35b), (38),
and (39) suggests the following choices for and

FIG. 4. DMO impulse response superimposed on the traveltime curves in Table 1, for the purpose of carrying out a
common-tangent construction for DMO.
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout
where we have affixed the suffix “T” on and a to denote
“true-amplitude.” Examining equation (39), it is clear that
we have chosen to compensate for the factor of
that appears in G and that we have chosen to
compensate for the remaining factors in G.
Substituting equations (41b) and (39) into equation (38),
Fourier-transforming back to the time domain,
and then using equations (35b) and (41a) to get
yields
where the approximate equality uses a condition
that is very well enforced by the short time extent of the
deconvolved w(t).
Equation (42) means that PO consists of the reflection
coefficient centered at the correct zero-offset time and con-
volved with the zero-phase source wavelet stretched by the
factor Closer examination confirms that the
choices we made in equations (41a) and (41b) have produced
an amplitude-preserving 3-D DMO! For, as in equation (23),
the peak amplitude of PO is proportional to with global
proportionality constant :
This, then, is the justification for the choices of and that
we made in equations (41a) and (41b) and for the form of S
that we assumed in equation (35a).
Having now confirmed that equations (41a) and (41b) give
the desired behavior of amplitude-preserving DMO, we will
use equation (35a) to find the time-domain filter
in the form that is directly applicable to our definition of
integral DMO in equation (31). This is easily done by an
inverse Fourier transform of
defines the “half-derivative” operator, since is the
Fourier transform of the first-derivative operator, using our
sign convention. Note that equations (31) and (44) say to
convolve the mapped with the time-reverse of the half
derivative operator.
55
Application of 3-D zero-offset migration
The final step in processing our dipping reflector through
the standard sequence is to apply 3-D zero-offset wave-
equation migration to the data set that was
derived in equation (42). We will abide by the conventional
“exploding reflector” methodology (Loewenthal et al.,
1976) in which the velocity is halved and the seismic energy
is assumed to have propagated in one direction only, from
reflectors to receivers. It is natural to have some doubts
about amplitude preservation under these assumptions,
which are ubiquitous in production seismic migration today.
Since we have assumed that the velocity is constant, we can
employ the 3-D Stolt migration formula (Stolt, 1978) to
obtain the migrated image
In Appendix D, we show that when from equation (42) is
substituted into these equations and equation (27) for is
employed, the result is
Note that the cumulative stretch factor is given by
The inverse Fourier transform of equation (48) leads
final time-domain expression for the migrated image:
Equation (52) is the final confirmation that the standard
processing sequence is true-amplitude! This equation states
that Pm consists of the reflection coefficient centered at
the correct migated time and convolved with the
zero-phase deconvolved source wavelet stretched by the
factor Note that equation (52) confirms that the image
wavelet is of the form shown in equation (3). Finally, it
should come as no surprise by now to observe that the peak
amplitude of Pm is proportional to with global propor-
tionality constant w( 0) :
56 Black et al.
With equation (53), we have attained our goal of estab-
lishing that the standard sequence, when it contains the
form of integral DMO defined by equation (44), produces an
image whose peak amplitude is proportional to the reflection
coefficient, with global proportionality constant w(0).
SUMMARY OF DMO METHODS
In this section, we shall summarize the forms that several
important DMO algorithms take. Our first task is to establish
the equivalence of our amplitude-preserving F-K and inte-
gral DMO equations, which were derived by completely dif-
ferent methods in the previous two sections. For this we begin
with the true-amplitude F-K Jacobian JT(A) of equation (19)
and substitute it into equation (C-14) from Appendix C. This
latter equation gives the integral-method filter ST that corre-
sponds to JT(A) by the prescription:
It is very pleasing to note that equation (54) is identical to
equation (44)! Thus, at least within the limits implied by our
stationary-phase analysis, our F-K and integral DMO meth-
ods are equivalent.
Armed with the confidence that we can asymptotically
relate F-K and integral methods by equation (C-14), we are
now in a position to summarize the equations defining three
significant DMO methods in addition to ours. One of these is
Hale’s (1984) algorithm whose Jacobian JH is given by
equation ( 12).
The second DMO method is a very prevalent distillation of
the integral method of Deregowski and Rocca (1981) and
Deregowski (1985, 1986, 1987):
Although Deregowski and Rocca (1981) experimented with
various filters, steep-dip cutoffs, and weight factors, the
compensating filter of equation (55) was implied by their
Fourier analysis of the large-offset response of the integral
DMO operator in Section 11, pp. 397-8 of their paper.
Subsequently (Deregowski 1985, 1986, 1987) equation (55)
became the starting point for widespread implementation of
integral DMO methods. Thus we will henceforth refer to
equation (55) as “Deregowski-Rocca (DR) DMO.” Equation
(55) is a generic form that has often been supplemented by
various weighting factors and cutoffs, many of which have
been ad hoc and most of which have been unpublished.
Since it is impractical to treat such variations here, we will
stick to the simple generic form in equation (55) for compar-
ison purposes.
The third method of interest is the F-K DMO algorithm
derived from Born inversion and zero-offset modeling by
Liner (1989) and Bleistein (1990):
= (56)
which is to be inserted into equation (18).
Table 2 summarizes the defining equations for true-ampli-
tude DMO (this work), Hale DMO, DR DMO, and Bleistein-
Liner DMO, viewing each as both an F-K and an integral
method. In representing each technique as an F-K method,
we have listed its Jacobian, appropriate for insertion into
equation (18). In representing each technique as an integral
method, we have listed its filter scaled by the
common factor of and appropriate for insertion
into equation (31). For example we have used equation
(C-14) to convert Hale’s F-K method into the corresponding
integral technique. Likewise we have converted the
Deregowski-Rocca integral DMO into an F-K technique. It
is convenient to show how the F-K operators depend upon
Hale’s quantity A defined in equations (14) and (40) and to
show how the integral operators depend on the “smile
function” a(q) defined in equation (34). Of course A and
a($ are equal to each other at the stationary point, as is
shown by equation (40).
Before leaving this section, we will establish the connec-
tion between Bleistein-Liner DMO and our DMO. Even
though the two methods obviously differ by a factor of A2
[or equivalently each method is correct in its own
context. The context of Bleistein-Liner DMO differs from
our context in two important respects:
1) Their imaging philosophy is to preserve the spectral
density of the image wavelet rather than its peak
amplitude.
2) The input and output to their DMO decay with spheri-
cal-divergence factors of the form and respec-
tively, as opposed to our processing sequence in which
the loss is removed prior to DMO.
To see that these two differences account for the factor of
A2, we rewrite A2 as follows:
where the last equality is obtained with the help of equations
(30) and (A-6). We recognize the first term
as the wavelet-stretch factor that is present following the
application of NM0 and DMO in equation (42). Thus multi-
plication by changes from an NMO-DMO system that
preserves peak amplitudes to one that preserves spectral
density, as we mentioned in the discussion that follows
equation (3). Furthermore, inspection of equation (21) shows
that the second factor in equation (57) is the ratio of the
spherical-divergence term on the zero-offset data
to the spherical-divergence term on the original data
Thus Bleistein-Liner’s DMO operator is com-
pletely consistent with ours!
We conclude that there is more than one way to define
‘‘true-amplitude DMO,” depending upon which aspect of
the image wavelet is to be preserved and upon the processing
sequence that surrounds DMO. It is not easy, however, to
similarly interpret that Hale DMO and DR DMO are consis-
tent with our DMO and Bleistein-Liner DMO.
 True-amplitude imaging and dip moveout
CONFIRMATION WITH MODEL DATA
In this section we confirm our theoretical predictions of
the behavior of various DMO algorithms in preserving
amplitudes on dipping model data. Figure 5 shows a series of
events with dips ranging from 0 to 80 degrees by 20-degree
increments. Each event is from equation (21) with the same
wavelet and value of independent of The top panel,
labeled “NMO,” shows the result of applying spherical-
divergence and NM0 corrections, and represents the input
to the subsequent DMO panels. The next three panels show
the outputs F-K DMO based upon three of the methods in
Table 2. We did not include Bleistein-Liner DMO in these
tests because it is designed for a processing sequence with
no spherical-divergence correction. The preservation of
peak amplitude in true-amplitude (correct) DMO is apparent,
as is the loss of amplitude at steep dips in the Hale DMO and
DR DMO. Also noticeable on the data is the fact that
wavelet stretch decreases with increasing time and with
FIG. 5. Processing of synthetic dipping-reflector data through
the NM0 and DMO steps of the standard sequence. Param-
eters for the data are v = 2000 m/s and offset = 2000 m. The
panel labelled “NMO” has had only the spherical-diver-
gence and NM0 corrections applied. The other panels show
Deregowski-Rocca (DR), Hale, and true-amplitude (correct)
DMO outputs, all the result of the F-K implementations
shown in Table 2.
57
increasing dip, consistent with the predicted stretch factor
Figure 6(a) shows the peak amplitudes picked from Figure 5
plotted versus dip angle. The plot has been normalized by
w(O), the peak of the source wavelet. According to our
true-amplitude result in equation (42), the normalized plot
should have a value of unity, independent of dip. It is
apparent that our amplitude-preserving DMO algorithm
comes very close to this value. On the other hand, the
measured peak amplitudes of the other two methods fall
increasingly short of equation (42) as dip increases, with the
DR DMO amplitude being somewhat weaker than Hale’s
DMO. The solid curves in this figure are predictions based
upon Table 2. For example, the prediction for true-amplitude
DMO is unity, and the prediction for Hale DMO is
The close agreement between the plotted points and the
curves in Figure 6(a) validates the entire dipping-reflector
analysis.
Figure 6(b) was derived in the same way as Figure 6(a),
except that dip was held constant at 60 degrees and offset
was varied. This set of three curves illustrates that the
differences in amplitude response among true, Hale, and
Deregowski-Rocca DMO methods increase rapidly with
increasing offset.
FIELD-DATA RESULTS
Figure 7 is a stack section from a marine survey in the Gulf
of Mexico. The steeply dipping salt flanks have been nicely
imaged with the help of the true-amplitude integral DMO
method described in this paper. Although there are observ-
able differences at the stack stage between true-amplitude
DMO and other algorithms, the most dramatic effects are
seen on prestack data, as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8
contains four panels, each of which is a moved-out CDP
gather at CDP 2620 on the right side of the salt dome in
Figure 7. The leftmost panel, with NM0 applied but no
DMO applied, clearly shows the kinematic problem that
DMO solves. As expected, the steeply dipping event at
about 1.8 seconds is severely overcorrected by the NM0
operation. The second panel from the left, which follows the
Deregowski-Rocca method given in equation (55) shows how
DMO successfully corrects the kinematics on this event.
However, the amplitudes are not quite right, as is seen by
comparing with the third panel, which was generated by the
integral formulation of the true-amplitude method described
in equations (31) and (44). It is also instructive to look
at the rightmost panel, showing the difference between
Deregowski-Rocca and true-amplitude DMO and displayed
at the same gain as the other panels. There, it is apparent
58 Black et al.
that true-amplitude DMO produces a stronger image at large
offsets. This is consistent with what our analysis predicts
and with what we saw on the model data in the previous
section.
CONCLUSION
We have analyzed what it takes to make constant-velocity
DMO algorithms preserve amplitudes. We have arrived at
the same scheme in two different ways: an F-K analysis
based upon Hale’s (1984) work and a 3-D integral analysis of
the amplitudes of a dipping reflector. As summarized in
Table 2, our prescription is a relatively simple change to
other F-K or integral DMO techniques and requires only
that a modified Jacobian or correction filter be applied to the
data. Applying our prescription to model and field data sets
shows a systematic increase in output amplitude with dip
relative to the Hale and Deregowski-Rocca algorithms and is
consistent with results derived by Liner and Bleistein. The
true-amplitude DMO formulation leads to benefits in not
only the final migrated image for steeply dipping events but
also in the usefulness of DMO-processed amplitudes for
amplitude-versus-offset studies.
However, our analysis and prescription are not the com-
plete answer to amplitude preservation in DMO processing.
In this work we have not, for example, addressed the
questions of adequate sampling of integral DMO operators to
prevent the operator aliasing often evident on horizontal
data (Hale, 1991) and the artifacts often observed at small
offsets and deep times (Beasley et al., 1988b). We have also
restricted our analysis to the case of constant velocity. For
nonconstant velocity, each stage of the processing sequence
in Figure 1 is generally modified to take into account the
inhomogeneous velocity field, with the possible exception of
the DMO step. We believe that our dipping-reflector calibra-
tion concept can be applied to such a processing sequence to
derive amplitude-preserving operations, but we have not
done so here. Nor have we addressed the important question
of amplitude preservation in the presence of missing input
data (Black and Schleicher, 1989). Since amplitude-preserv-
ing DMO leads to larger amplitudes along the flanks of the
DMO “smile” operator than either> Hale DMO or
Deregowski-Rocca DMO, we expect such operator sampling
problems to require even more attention when amplitude-
preserving DMO is being applied. But full attention to these
issues will have to be addressed elsewhere.
We have established that the concept of true-amplitude
DMO is ruled by context. It makes no sense to talk of
true-amplitude DMO without first specifying the processing
sequence of which it is a part. Thus we have seen that our
DMO operator is correct when a spherical-divergence cor-
rection is made prior to DMO whereas the Bleistein-Liner
approach is correct when no such spherical-divergence
correction is made.
Likewise, the concept of true-amplitude DMO is ruled by
convention. We have observed that the zero-phase image
wavelet has a bandwidth that depends on dip, depth, and
shooting geometry. If correct processing causes every event
to have a different wavelet, what do we mean by “amplitude-
preserving ?” To answer that question here, we have adopted
the intuitively appealing convention that the peak amplitude of
the image wavelet should be preserved during processing. This
means that the peak of each event will be globally proportional
to its reflectivity on a correctly-processed section. This con-
vention has led to the form of our DMO operator, but it is not
the only reasonable convention. Bleistein-Liner and
Deregowski et al. (1990) advocate a convention in which the
spectral density (e.g., the peak amplitude in the Fourier trans-
form) of the image wavelet is preserved in processing. This
leads to different amplitude-preserving DMO operators,
equally as good as ours. The dipping-reflector analysis we have
presented here easily enables us to analyze such DMO meth-
ods derived with different processing sequences and imaging
conventions in mind. At the very least, we can then tell the
interpreter what he or she is getting.

FIG. 6. Plotted points are peak amplitudes extracted from the processed synthetic data leading to Figure 5. Amplitudes are
normalized by w(O). Solid curves are theoretical predictions based on Table 2. Curves (a) have a constant offset of 2000 m and
show the variation with dip. Curves (b) have a constant dip of 60 degrees and show the variation with offset. In these curves,
the circles are for true-amplitude (correct) DMO, the squares for Hale DMO, and the triangles for Deregowski-Rocca DMO.
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout 59

FIG. 7. Stack section after application the true-amplitude integral DMO step of the standard processing sequence. The data is
from a marine survey in the Gulf of Mexico. The CDP interval is 41 ft.
60 Black et al.

FIG. 8. Comparison of CDP gathers at CDP 2620 of the dataset of Figure 7. Panel (a) has had only spherical divergence and NM0
applied. Panel (b) was processed with Deregowski-Rocca integral DMO. Panel (c) was processed with true-amplitude integral
DMO (this work). Panel (d) is the difference between true-amplitude DMO and Deregowski-Rocca DMO, displayed at the same
gain as the other panels. In these gathers, the near offset is 863 ft, and the far offset is 10,623 ft.
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank Cam Wason for valuable comments on
our formulation of the calibration technique and for pointing
out the importance of the wavelet-stretch issue. We also
wish to thank Mark Egan for arranging the processing of the
field data example. We benefited from careful readings of the
manuscript by Paul Fowler and Matt Brzostowski. The
quality of the manuscript was improved by excellent com-
ments made during the refereeing process by Dave Hale,
Norm Bleistein, and Mark Portney.
REFERENCES
Abramowitz, M., and Stegun, I. A., 1965, Handbook of mathemat-
ical functions: Dover Publ., Inc., 295-330.
Aki, K., and Richards, P. G., 1980, Quantitative seismology:
Theory and methods (W. H. Freeman & Co.), Section 6.2,
200-213.
Beasley, C., Chambers, R., and Jakubowicz, H., 1988a, A method
of processing seismic data: U.S. Patent Number 4,742,497.
Beasley, C. J., and Mobley, E., 1988b, Amplitude and antialiasing
treatment in (x-t) domain DMO: 58th Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc.
Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 1113-l116.
Berg, L. E., 1984, Application of dip moveout by Fourier transform:
Method overview and presentation of processed data from 2-D
and 3-D surveys: 54th Ann. Internat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys.,
Expanded Abstracts, 796-799.
Black, J. L., and Egan, M. S., 1988, True amplitude DMO in 3-D:
58th Ann. Intemat. Mtg., Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Ab-
stracts, 1109-l112.
Black, J. L., and Schleicher, K. L., 1989, Effect of irregular
sampling on prestack DMO: 59th Ann. Intemat. Mtg., Soc. Expl.
Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 1144-l147.
Black, J. L., and Wason, C. B., 1989, Method of true amplitude
dip-moveout correction: U.S. Patent No. 4878204.
Bleistein, N., 1990, Born DMO revisited: 60th Ann. Internat. Mtg.,
Soc. Expl. Geophys., Expanded Abstracts, 1366-1369.
APPENDIX A
KINEMATIC IDENTITIES FOR DMO
The purpose of this Appendix is to establish some impor-
tant kinematic DMO identities that will simplify the evalua-
tion of the stationary phase integral in Appendix B. These
kinematic identities are summarized in Table 3, and could
have been derived by a lengthy analysis of the raypaths in
Figure 3. However, we choose to derive these identities by
carrying out the common-tangent construction for a planar
event with time dip along the shot-receiver axis. Figure 4
plots the traveltime curves (cf. Table 1) for such an event
along with the DMO impulse response described by the
quantity defined from in equation (A-l) below.
Singling out the point A on the input curve we know
that the NM0 operation will move its energy to point B on
the curve We also know that DMO will move its
energy a distance to some point C on the zero-offset curve
It is the purpose of this appendix to make these shifts
quantitative by computing the relationships among
We will do this b y
demanding that the DMO impulse response be tangent to the
zero-offset traveltime curve at point C.
The traveltime equations (26), (27), and (28) from the body
of the paper are the basis of this Appendix, so we repeat
them here:
61
Derogowski, S. M., 1982, Dip-moveout and reflector-point dis-
persal: Geophys. Prosp., 30, 318-322.
- 1985, An integral method of dip moveout: Presented at the
47th Ann. EAEG Mtg.
1986, What is DMO?: First Break, 4, 7-24.
- 1987, An integral method of dip moveout: Geophys. Trans.,
33, 1l-22.
Deregowski, S. M., Raynaud, B. A., Redshaw, T. C., and Sum-
mers, T. P., 1990, DMO algorithms: A review: Presented at the
52nd Ann. EAEG Mtg.
Deregowski, S. M., and Rocca, F., 1981, Geometrical optics and
wave theory of constant offset sections in layered media: Geoph.
Prosp., 29, 374-406.
Hale, I. D., 1983, Dip moveout by Fourier transform: Ph.D. thesis,
Stanford University.
- 1984, Dip moveout by Fourier transform: Geophysics, 49,
741-757.
- 1991, A nonaliased integral method for dip moveout: Geo-
physics, 56, 795-805.
Liner, C. L., 1989, Mapping reflection seismic data to zero offset:
Ph.D. thesis, Center for Wave Phenomena CWP-081, Colorado
School of Mines.
Levin, F. K., 1971, Apparent velocity from dipping interfaces:
Geophysics, 36, 510-516.
Loewenthal, D., Lu, L., Robertson, R., and Sherwood, J., 1976,
The wave equation applied to migration: Geophys. Prosp., 24,
380-399.
Messiah, A., 1968, Quantum Mechanics: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
471-472.
Morse, P. M., and Feshbach, H., 1953, Methods of theoretical
physics: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 437-441.
Stolt, R. H., 1978, Migration by Fourier transform: Geophysics, 43,
23-48.
Wu, R. S., and Toksöz, M. N., 1987, Diffraction tomography and
multisource holography applied to seismic imaging: Geophysics,
52, l-11.
Yilmaz, O., and Claerbout, J. F., 1980, Prestack partial migration:
Geophysics, 45, 1753-1779.
Zhang, L., 1988, A new Jacobian for DMO: Stanford Explo. Proj.
Rep. No. 59, 201-208.
In addition, based upon the DMO kinematics of equations
(33) and (34), we introduce a quantity shown in Figure 4,
that describes the mapping of a sample B at time (y,) up
along DMO impulse response to an arbitrary output location
y:
where is the unit
vector in the source-receiver direction, and is the dis-
placement along the DMO ellipse in the el direction from yn
to y.
We now begin the common-tangent construction to derive
the DMO shift We first require that the slope of the
impulse response equal the slope of the zero-offset curve
which is D1. This leads to the following condition:
62 Black et al.

where Multiplying both sides of this equation by to show that the value of the impulse-response mapping
the denominator, squaring, and solving for with the at the point
correct sign yields:

equals To do this, we first use equation (28) to rewrite

equation (A-l) as:

For future use, the denominator can be rewritten using

equation (28):

Now we find the value of the “smile-function” at Using (A-4) this becomes:
and call it Using equation (34) and equation (A-2), we
find

Finally solving (A-3) for Dl, substituting the results in

equation (27), and using the previous result proves that the
curves intersect at :

(A-4)
(A-5)

Thus the point is indeed the point of

which corresponds to the F-K DMO result given in equation
(14)
Having determined the value of at which the slopes of
the impulse-response and zero-offset curves for a given dip
in Figure 4 are equal, next we need to confirm that the two
curves do, in fact, intersect at point C. To do this, we need
Table 3. DMO kinematic identities and their equation refer-
ences. Note that where A is Hale’s constant,
defined by equation (14) in 2-D and by equation (40) in 3-D.
common tangency in Figure 4.
Having now established the basic relations in Figure 4, we
proceed to derive the additional seven identities isted as
(A-6)-(A-12) in Table 3. Equations (A-l) and (A-5 lead to
the first additional identity:
(A-6)
For the next two identities, we return to (A-2) and use
(A-4) to produce

Equation Then can be eliminated using (A-6), yielding:

Kinematic Identity Reference

Rearrangement produces the desired quadratic-equation

identity:
(A-7)
which can be solved to yield the next identity:

. (A-8)

Identity (A-9) can be proven starting with equation (28)

and using equation (27) to produce:
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout 63
The term in parenthesis vanishes by equation (A-7), leaving: Finally we derive the last identity (A-12) from (A-4) and

APPENDIX B
STATIONARY-PHASE EVALUATION OF INTEGRAL

In this Appendix, we will evaluate equation (37) using the

stationary phase approximation, which is valid at large
values of the quantity To this end, we rewrite equation
(37) as:

To show that 0, equation (B-7) can be evaluated

at using identities established in Appendix A. Substituting
and equation (A-9) into (B-7) and using
equation (34) produces:

The method of stationary phase (or steepest descents)

(Morse and Feshbach, 1953) approximates this integral as:

(B-3 The expression in parenthesis is zero by equation (A-7)

completing the proof that is the stationary point:
where is the value of at the stationary point, where
= 0. It will be shown shortly that, as should be
expected, from the kinematic analysis of Appendix A is Now the second derivative will be computed by differen-
the point where vanishes. tiating equation (B-7):
The derivatives of and with respect to
are required to compute the first derivative of Substi-
tuting (27) into (28) yields:

Differentiation of this expression produces:

Likewise, the derivative of is:

64 Black et al.

Previous evaluation of has shown that the first term is This completes the evaluation of the second derivative.
zero. Continuing the analysis on the second term only and The next step is to evaluate using equations (B-2)
and (A-5):
using:

produces:
(B-9)

Equation (B-3) can now be computed by substituting the

values of and from equation (B-8) and (B-9) and
recognizing the Fresnel integral (Abramowitz and Stegun,
1965):

Equations (B-5) and (B-6) provide expressions for and

that can be substituted in this equation to produce:

Equations (A-6), (A-10), and (A-l1) can be used to eliminate

and thereby producing the result:

Substituting expression (A-12) for in this equation and

rearranging terms yields:
Equations (B- 10) and (B- 11) are the desired results for
the evaluation of the DMO integral, as stated in equation (38)
of the main text.

APPENDIX C
CONNECTING F-K DMO WITH INTEGRAL DMO

In this Appendix we establish the mathematical connec- Our goal is to connect equation (C-l) with the general
tion between F-K and integral implementations of DMO. expression for integral DMO, given by equation (31) of the
This connection is required to check the consistency of our main text:
F-K derivation with our more rigorous integral derivation.
Likewise this connection is required to relate F-K and
integral results for other DMO algorithms in Table 2. This
Appendix is thus a generalization of the work of Berg (1984).
We begin with the general expression for F-K DMO,
following equation (18) of the main text:
where a($ isisgiven
givenby
byequation
equation(34)
(34) and
and y y
The plan of this appendix is to start with equation (C-l)
and derive equation (C-3), thereby establishing the mathe-
matical relationship between J and S. We begin by inverse-
Fourier-transforming both sides of equation (C-l) with re-
where is an arbitrary Jacobian spect to and k to obtain
such as JT in equation (19). For notational simplicity in this
Appendix, we have suppressed the offset argument h that
appears in all quantities. In equation (C-l), we have used the
quantity A, whose definition in equation (14) we repeat here:
 True-amplitude Imaging and Dip Moveout
Simple rearrangement and use of the definition of yields:
where we recognize that the term in curly brackets is very
closely related to the filter S in equation (C-3) since
In fact, if we introduce the dummy variable t’ and
make the change of variables in equation
(C-4), we find it strongly resembles equation (C-3) with the
following expression for S:
The resemblance would be complete if we could establish
that which we shall do below in equation (C-9).
Next we will use a stationary-phase approximation to
evaluate the k integral in equation (C-4). The phase of this
integral is:
(C-7)
where Differentiation with respect to k and
use of the definition of A(k) yields
Setting this derivative to zero, using the definition of A(k),
and solving for the value of k at the stationary point,
yields
Substituting into the definition of A(k) yields the follow-
ing expression for the value of A(k) at the stationary point:
This establishes the desired connection between A(k) and
a(q) mentioned after equation (C-6). Inserting these values
65
of and into equation (C-7) yields the expression for
the phase at the stationary point:
The next step in the evaluation of the k-integral in equa-
tion (C-5) is to evaluate the second derivative of with
respect to k. Using equations (C-2), (C-7), and (C-9), we
obtain
We are now in a position to evaluate the k-integral in
equation (C-5) using the stationary-phase method along with
equations (C-10) and (C-lla). The result is
If we now examine the phase of the integral, it is clear that
S is very strongly peaked (&function behavior) when the
following condition is satisfied:
(C-12)
This is, of course, just the kinematic DMO mapping of
equation (33), as we would hope to obtain. Carrying out the
substitution of equation (C-6) and using equation (C-9)
y i e l d s
Finally, substituting equation (C-12) for under the square
root gives
where d is the half-derivative operator defined in
equation (45).
Equation (C-14) is the principal result of this Appendix. It
converts any Jacobian for F-K DMO into the
corresponding filter for integral DMO. An
important part of this conversion is equation (C-9), which
identifies A(k) at the stationary point with
66 Black et al.

APPENDIX D
3-D ZERO-OFFSET STOLT MIGRATION DETAILS

In this Appendix, we derive equation (48), the result of
zero-offset 3-D constant-velocity migration. Beginning with
equations (46)-(47), substituting from the
Fourier transform of equation (42), and using from equa-
tion (27) yields
To evaluate the K-integral, we use the standard expression
(Messiah, 1968) for an integral involving a delta-function
whose argument is a function that has one zero:
(D-7)

where is the zero of Setting and solving

for yields

(D-1)
where

(D-2)
and (D-8)
(D-3)
where we have used the relationship between and
We first perform the double integral over by rotating the given by equation (50). From equation (D-6), we also get the
dummy vector variables k and so that each has one expression for the first derivative
component (e.g., along the dip direction e = D/D and the
other component (e.g., along the orthogonal (strike)
direction. This leads to

(D-9)
In deriving the above equation, note that we have used
(D-4) (D-10)

Finally, using equations (D-7) through (D-10) to evaluate

the K integral in equation (D-5) gives the result
(D-5)
where we have renamed the dummy variable as K and
have defined the argument of the delta-function as the
function (D-l 1)

(D-6) which simplifies easily to equation (48), the desired result.