Some Improvement of the Shortest Path Ray Tracing Algorithm

Abstract

A technique for improving the efficiency of the shortest path ray tracing (SPR) algorithm is presented. We provide quantitative measures to determine the accuracy of SPR with varying numbers of connections per node. Our improvement consists of a method that finds more accurate rays in regions of low velocity contrast than that yielded by the original SPR algorithm. This allows the researcher to use fewer connections per node and, as a consequence, to save computer time. In two-dimensional experiments we find that the improved algorithm requires about 80 percent less connections per node saving 70 percent of elapsed time. In three-dimensional tomographic applications these savings should be even greater.