Patent Document ID: 9075159
Application ID: 13156190
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for determining properties of a subsurface region of interest from actual seismic data comprising: a. obtaining actual seismic data representative of the subsurface region and selecting an arbitrary initial earth property model from a data source or generating an arbitrary initial earth property model for the subsurface region; b. performing forward modeling, using the arbitrary initial earth property model, to create modeled seismic data with similar acquisition specifications as the actual seismic data; c. transforming the modeled and actual seismic data to a temporal Fourier frequency domain to create frequency domain modeled and actual seismic data wherein the frequency domain modeled and actual seismic data includes an amplitude portion and a phase portion; d. measuring the misfit between the frequency domain modeled seismic data and frequency domain actual seismic data to produce frequency domain residual seismic data; e. performing phase unwrapping of the phase portion of certain observed frequency components of the frequency domain residual seismic data to create an unwrapped residual phase portion; and f. inverting the unwrapped residual phase portion to determine desired properties of the subsurface region of interest, wherein the inverting minimizes an objective function defined to measure the misfit, and wherein the performing forward modeling, transforming, measuring, performing phase unwrapping, and inverting steps are performed by a computer processor.