Patents by Inventor John Kenneth Washbourne

John Kenneth Washbourne has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 10215869
    Abstract: A method is described that includes receiving one or more seismic measurements corresponding to a plurality of source and receiver locations and providing an earth model for a geologic medium having a heterogeneous tilted symmetry axis. The earth model includes a nonzero shear velocity in the direction of the symmetry axis. The one or more seismic measurements are propagated over a plurality of time-steps in accordance with the earth model and a set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations. The set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations describes one or more seismic wavefields.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 26, 2019
    Assignee: CHEVRON U.S.A. INC.
    Inventors: John Kenneth Washbourne, Kenneth Paul Bube, Raymond Andrew Ergas, Tamas Nemeth
  • Publication number: 20190011583
    Abstract: A method is described for full waveform inversion using a tree-based Bayesian approach which automatically selects the model complexity, thereby reducing the computational cost. The method may be executed by a computer system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 5, 2018
    Publication date: January 10, 2019
    Inventors: Anandaroop Ray, Sam T. Kaplan, John Kenneth Washbourne, Uwe K. Albertin
  • Publication number: 20160291180
    Abstract: A method is described that includes receiving one or more seismic measurements corresponding to a plurality of source and receiver locations and providing an earth model for a geologic medium having a heterogeneous tilted symmetry axis. The earth model includes a nonzero shear velocity in the direction of the symmetry axis. The one or more seismic measurements are propagated over a plurality of time-steps in accordance with the earth model and a set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations. The set of energy-conservative self-adjoint pseudoacoustic equations describes one or more seismic wavefields.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2016
    Publication date: October 6, 2016
    Inventors: John Kenneth WASHBOURNE, Kenneth Paul BUBE, Raymond Andrew ERGAS, Tamas NEMETH
  • Patent number: 9075159
    Abstract: A system and computer-implemented method for determining properties of a subsurface region of interest from seismic data include obtaining seismic data and an initial earth property model, forward modeling using the initial earth property model to create modeled seismic data, transforming the modeled and actual seismic data to create frequency domain modeled and actual seismic data including amplitude portion and phase portions, measuring the misfit between the frequency domain modeled and actual seismic data to produce frequency domain residual seismic data, performing phase unwrapping of certain observed frequency components of the frequency domain residual seismic data to create an unwrapped residual phase portion, and inverting the unwrapped residual phase portion to determine desired properties of the subsurface region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Date of Patent: July 7, 2015
    Assignee: Chevron U.S.A., Inc.
    Inventors: John Kenneth Washbourne, Nikhil Koolesh Shah, Kenneth Paul Bube
  • Publication number: 20120316844
    Abstract: A system and computer-implemented method for inverting data from an area of interest to determine physical properties of the area of interest is disclosed. The method includes transforming the data into a Fourier frequency domain to obtain frequency domain data wherein the frequency domain data includes an amplitude portion and a phase portion, performing phase unwrapping of the phase portion of the frequency domain data to generate an unwrapped phase portion, and inverting the unwrapped phase portion to determine the physical properties of the area of interest. The method may also extrapolate the phase. The data inverted may be, for example, seismic data or synthetic aperture radar data. The system includes a data source, a user interface, and a processor configured to execute computer modules designed to execute the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: Nikhil Koolesh Shah, John Kenneth Washbourne, Kenneth Paul Bube
  • Publication number: 20120316791
    Abstract: A system and computer-implemented method for determining properties of a subsurface region of interest from seismic data is disclosed. An embodiment of the method performs full waveform inversion by non-linear model update to compute a velocity model. The method includes obtaining actual seismic data representative of the subsurface region and an initial earth property model for the subsurface region, performing forward modeling using the initial earth property model to create modeled seismic data with similar acquisition specifications as the actual seismic data, calculating a residual between the actual seismic data and the modeled seismic data in a time or transform domain, and inverting the residual to generate a model produced by non-linear model update components. The system includes a data source, user interface, and processor configured to execute computer modules that implement the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: Nikhil Koolesh Shah, John Kenneth Washbourne
  • Publication number: 20120314538
    Abstract: A system and computer-implemented method for determining properties of a subsurface region of interest from seismic data is disclosed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: John Kenneth Washbourne, Nikhil Koolesh Shah, Kenneth Paul Bube
  • Publication number: 20120316790
    Abstract: A system and computer-implemented method for inverting data from an area of interest to determine physical properties of the area of interest is disclosed. The method includes transforming the data into a Fourier frequency domain to obtain frequency domain data wherein the frequency domain data includes an amplitude portion and a phase portion, performing phase unwrapping of the phase portion of the frequency domain data to generate an unwrapped phase portion of unwrapped data, extrapolating the unwrapped phase portion to create extrapolated unwrapped data, and inverting the extrapolated unwrapped data to determine the physical properties of the area of interest. The data inverted may be, for example, seismic data or synthetic aperture radar data. The system includes a data source, an user interface, and a processor configured to execute computer modules designed to implement the method.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 8, 2011
    Publication date: December 13, 2012
    Applicant: Chevron U.S.A. Inc.
    Inventors: John Kenneth Washbourne, Nikhil Koolesh Shah, Kenneth Paul Bube