Improving 3D Site Characterization Velocity Models with High Frequency FWI

Paper submitted to IMAGE 2026, by Luca Limonta, Bertrand Caselitz, Roberto Ruiz, Julien Oukili (TGS).

Abstract

3D Ultra-High-Resolution Seismic (3D UHRS) surveys are increasingly critical to offshore wind-farm site characterization, where accurate imaging and a quantitative understanding of the shallow subsurface are essential for foundation design, geotechnical risk mitigation, and cost-effective project execution. While UHRS acquisition technology provides dense spatial sampling and broadband frequency content, conventional time-domain processing and velocity analysis often fail to fully exploit the information content of these datasets, particularly in geologically complex near-surface environments dominated by strong lateral heterogeneity and rapid vertical velocity variations.

Read the full article here.