Depth-domain velocity modeling in foothill area is difficult because of the low S/N and large moveout between
gathers.Common imaging gathers (CIGs) have higher S/N than CMP gathers for the in-phase stack effect of prestack depth
migration.Meanwhile,the residual moveout on CIGs can be used to wholly update the depth velocity model by tomography in
foothill area.Tomography velocity inversion based on CIGs is very suitable for the velocity estimation of rugged topography.On
the basis of previous research,the method of CIGs tomography velocity inversion was tested on 3-D SEG salt dome model and
real data from foothill area.The results show that tomography velocity inversion based on CIGs can improve the precision of
depth velocity model in complicated foothill area.