Imaging with multiples using linearized full-wave inversion Mandy Wong, Biondo Biondi, and Shuki Ronen ABSTRACT We presents a technique for imaging both primaries and multiples using linearized inversion. When used with a suitable migration velocity model, linearized full- wave inversion (LFWI) makes use of the multiple energy as signal while removing the crosstalk in the image. By using the two-way propagator in both modeling and migration, we can image a class of multiply scattered events. Such events can scatter off sharp-interfaces in the migration velocity many times but only interact with the (reflectivity) model once. We demonstrate the concept and methodology in 2D with a synthetic Sigsbee2B model. INTRODUCTION Traditionally, seismic imaging techniques only account for the primary reflections. In the presence of strong reflectors (e.g.. air-water interface, hard water bottom or salt bodies), multiples can significantly degrade the interpretation of images. Therefore, much effort has been devoted to developing multiple suppression techniques in the past few decades. The well-known multiple-removal tools such as deconvolution (in time, frequency, and slant-stack domains), Radon-transform demultiple and frequency-wavenumber (f-k) demultiple are limited unless the geology of the subsurface is simple. In the presence of complex geology, multiples are not totally separable from primaries by criteria such as periodicity, moveout velocity, and spectra. In model-based technique, which predict multiples with wavefield extrapolation (Morley, 1982; Berryhill and Kim, 1986; Wiggins, 1988; Lu et al., 1999), the accuracy of the predicted multiples strongly depends on the model used. Surface-related multiple elimination (SRME), a convolution-based technique (Riley and Claerbout, 1976; Tsai, 1985; Verschuur et al., 1992), is more generally applicable. But this method requires an overlap of source and receiver locations and cannot suppress internal multiples. Despite substantial progress in multiple elimination, complete removal of surface-related and internal multiples without distorting the primary signals remains a challenge. One motivation to make use of multiples is that they can provide subsurface infor- mation not found in primaries. For a given pair of source and receiver, the sub-surface reflection point of a multiple is located differently than that of a primary. For a multi- shot seismic survey, migrating the multiples translates to higher fold for regions well SEP–147