Solving the Inverse Generalized Problem of Vertical Seismic Profiling

The dynamic inverse seismics problem is considered in a generalized setting. We investigate whether the wave propagation problem in a vertically nonhomogeneous medium is well-posed. We show that the regular part of the solution is an L ₂ function and the inverse problem, i.e., the determination of the reflection coefficient, is thus reducible to minimizing the error functional. The gradient of the functional is obtained in explicit form from the conjugate problem, and approximate formulas for its evaluation are derived. A regularization algorithm for the solution of the inverse problem is considered; simulation results using various excitation sources are reported.