We present an effective denoising strategy for two-way wave equation migration. Three dominant artifact types are analyzed and eliminated by an optimized imaging condition. We discuss a previously unsolved beam-like artifact, which is probably caused by the cross-correlation of downward transmitting and upward scattering waves from both the source and receiver side of a single seismic shot. This artifact has relatively strong cross- correlation but carries no useful information from reflectors. The beam-like artifact widely exists in pre-stack imaging and has approximately the same amplitude as useful seismic signals. In most cases, coherent artifacts in the image are caused by directionally propagating energy. Based on propagation angles obtained by wavefield gradients, we identify the artifact energy and subtract its contribution in the imaging condition. By this process most artifacts can be accurately eliminated, including direct wave artifacts, scattering artifacts, and beam- like artifacts. This method is independent of the wavefield propagator and is easy to adapt to almost all current wave equation migration methods if needed. As this method deals with the physical artifact origins, little damage is caused to the seismic signal. Extra k-domain filtering can additionally enhance the stacking result image quality. This method succeeds in the super-wide-angle one-way migration and we can expect its success in other two-way wave equation migrations and especially in reverse time migration.
