Adaptive beam migration (ABM) is the implementation of a prestack depth migration based on Gaussian technology. ABM is a flexible, targetable migration algorithm that combines many of the features associated with ray-based and wave-equation migrations. It is fully anisotropic, handling both vertical transverse isotropy (VTI) and tilted transverse isotropy (TTI).

The migration is targetable and is inherently multiarrival, using amplitude and phase information obtained from dynamic ray-tracing from the surface of overlapping sets of full-width beams. Unlike wavefield extrapolation migrations, ABM has no inherent dip limit and is suitable for imaging steep dip and overturned structures. ABM also produces offset or offset vector tiles (OVTs) gathers suitable for further analysis. ABM and Gaussian packet migration (GPM) form a complete beam portfolio. ABM provides a full final-imaging method, and GPM provides fast and detailed model building and scenario testing capabilities.