Seismic Soundoff

“Repeatability is the biggest hurdle in time-lapse monitoring, but it’s also where the opportunity lies. 4D FWI can help address those repeatability challenges.” On this episode, Andrew Geary sits down with Madhav Vyas and Kris Innanen, guest editors for July’s The Leading Edge special section on 4D full-waveform inversion. They explain how 4D FWI goes beyond traditional differencing by fully inverting wavefields, making time-lapse seismic more robust against survey inconsistencies and complex overburden. Listeners will learn why now is the perfect time to adopt 4D FWI, the main technical hurdles around repeatability and uncertainty, and the first steps to take for reservoir monitoring and survey design. KEY TAKEAWAYS > 4D FWI inverts the full wavefield - reflections, refractions, diving waves, multiples - to detect reservoir changes, making it more robust than conventional 4D processing. > Repeatability of surveys and assessing uncertainty are the biggest challenges, but workflows like hypothesis testing,