Maximum energy traveltimes calculated in the seismic frequency band

Prestack Kirchhoff migration using first-arrival traveltimes has been shown to produce poor images in areas of complex structure. To avoid this problem, I propose a new method for calculating traveltimes that estimates the traveltime of the maximum energy arrival, rather than the first arrival. This method estimates a traveltime that is valid in the seismic frequency band, not the usual high-frequency approximation. Instead of solving the eikonal equation for the traveltime, I solve the helmholtz equation to estimate the wavefield for a few frequencies. I then perform a parametric fit to the wavefield to estimate a traveltime, amplitude, and phase. The images created by using these parameters in a Kirchhoff imaging algorithm are comparable in quality to those created using full-wavefield, finite-difference, shot-profile migration.