The most-energetic traveltime of seismic waves

In tomographic image processing of seismic data, the first-arrival traveltime (FATT) is often different from those of more energetic wavefronts in realistic media. Since the traveltime of most-energetic wavefront (METT) dominates the data, computing the METT is recognized as an essential element in modern seismic imaging techniques. Solving the full wave equation is extremely expensive to be impractical even for large-size computers to carry out; the solution of the eikonal equation for which the corresponding amplitude is continuous is conjectured to be the METT.