Irregularsurfaceflattening,whichisbasedonaboundaryconforminggridandthetransformationbetweencurvilinearandCartesiancoordinatesystems,isamathematicalmethodthatcanelegantlyhandleirregularsurfaces,buthasbeenlimitedtoobtainingfirstarrivalsonly.Bycombiningamultistageschemewiththefast-sweepingmethod(FSM,themethodtoobtainfirst-arrivaltraveltimeincurvilinearcoordinates),thereflectedwavesfromacrustalinterfacecanbetracedinatopographicmodel,inwhichthereflectedwavefrontisobtainedbyreinitializingtraveltimesintheinterfaceforupwindbranches.Alocaltriangulationisappliedtomakeaconnectionbetweenvelocityandinterfacenodes.Thenajointinversionoffirst-arrivalandreflectiontraveltimesforimagingseismicvelocitystructuresincomplexterrainsispresented.Numericalexamplesallperformwellwithdifferentseismicvelocitymodels.Theincreasingtopographiccomplexityandevenuseofahighcurvaturereflectorinthesemodelsdemonstratethereliability,accuracyandrobustnessofthenewworkingscheme;checkerboardtestingillustratesthemethod’shighresolution.Noisetolerancetestingindicatesthemethod’sabilitytoyieldpracticaltraveltimetomography.Furtherdevelopmentofthemultistageschemewillallowotherlaterarrivalstobetracedandusedinthetraveltimeinversion.
