Patent Document ID: 20150293261
Application ID: 14657962
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for inverting measured seismic data in frequency domain to infer a model of a physical property representative of a subsurface region, comprising: in iterative inversion of the measured data performed using a computer to estimate the model, after an objective function has been computed measuring difference between model-simulated data and the measured data, and after a gradient of the objective function with respect to parameters of the model has been computed to establish a search direction for a model update, then performing a line search along the search direction to determine the model update, said line search comprising: (a) computing a model update by perturbing a current model in the search direction, and then estimating a corresponding perturbation in the model-simulated data using perturbation theory; (b) re-computing the objective function using the perturbed model-simulated data; (c) repeating (a)-(c) a plurality of times with different model perturbations, and selecting the model perturbation that results in a minimum objective function; and (d) using the selected model perturbation to generate an updated physical property model, and using the updated physical property model to prospect for or produce hydrocarbons.