Wavefield reconstruction inversion via physics-informed neural networks

Wavefield reconstruction inversion (WRI) formulates a PDE-constrained optimization problem to reduce cycle skipping in full-waveform inversion (FWI). WRI is often implemented by solving for the frequency-domain representation of the wavefield using the finite-difference method. The approach requires matrix inversions and affords limited flexibility to accommodating irregular model geometries. On the other hand, physics-informed neural network (PINN) uses the underlying physical laws as loss functions to train the neural network (NN) to provide flexible continuous functional approximations of the solutions without matrix inversions. By including a data-constrained term in the loss function, the trained NN can reconstruct a wavefield that simultaneously fits the recorded data and satisfies the Helmholtz equation for a given initial velocity model. Using the predicted wavefields, we rely on a small-size NN to predict the velocity using the reconstructed wavefield. In this velocity prediction NN, spatial coordinates are used as input data to the network and the scattered Helmholtz equation is used to define the loss function. After we train this network, we are able to predict the velocity in the domain of interest. We develop this PINN-based WRI method and demonstrate its potential using a part of the Sigsbee2A model and a modified Marmousi model. The results show that the PINN-based WRI is able to invert for a reasonable velocity with very limited iterations and frequencies, which can be used in a subsequent FWI application.