# NMO-velocity surfaces and Dix-type formulae in anisotropic heterogeneous media

## TL;DR

This paper introduces NMO-velocity surfaces in 3D anisotropic media, enabling Dix-type averaging and differentiation, which improves modeling and tomography of complex layered subsurface structures.

## Contribution

It develops a novel formalism of NMO-velocity surfaces and associated algorithms for anisotropic heterogeneous media, extending traditional methods to 3D anisotropic cases.

## Key findings

- NMO-velocity surfaces can be visualized as 3D plots of NMO velocity in all directions.
- Dix-type averaging of NMO-velocity surface cross-sections models NMO ellipse and moveout.
- The method is efficient for layered anisotropic media and suitable for anisotropic stacking-velocity tomography.

## Abstract

Reflection moveout of pure modes recorded on conventional-length spreads is described by a normal-moveout (NMO) velocity that depends on the orientation of the common-midpoint (CMP) line. Here, we introduce the concept of NMO-velocity surfaces, obtained by plotting the NMO velocity as the radius-vector along all possible directions in 3-D space, and use it to develop Dix-type averaging and differentiation algorithms in anisotropic heterogeneous media. The intersection of the NMO-velocity surface with the horizontal plane represents the NMO ellipse that can be estimated from wide-azimuth reflection data. We demonstrate that the NMO ellipse and conventional-spread moveout as a whole can be modeled by Dix-type averaging of specifically oriented cross-sections of the NMO-velocity surfaces along the zero-offset reflection raypath. This formalism is particularly simple to implement for a stack of homogeneous anisotropic layers separated by plane dipping boundaries. Since our method involves computing just a single (zero-offset) ray for a given reflection event, it can be efficiently used in anisotropic stacking-velocity tomography.