Review on parallel computing and its application in exploration geophysics
并行计算技术及其在勘探地球物理学中的现状与展望

We present the parallel computing technology and its development status in geophysical exploration data processing, and analyze some representative parallel algorithm examples in geophysics. Parallel computing can effectively speed up the processing and reduce the cost based on powerful parallel computer, design efficient parallel algorithm in the parallel computing exploiting environment (MPI, PVW, etc) by allotting rational parallel granularity, communication cost, and load balance. The application of parallel algorithm is quite mature in the seismic data processing, which is developing ahead toward the more practical parallel technology based the PC cluster in recent years. But in the non-seismic aspects there are few reports on the parallel algorithm, and the research is still at the initial stage. For the 2D and 3D MT inversion, the parallel technology is getting more and more attention and recognition. With the demand growth of resources and energy, the exploration development to the depth and extent has resulted in the rapid increase of the data, which promotes the development and application of high performance parallel computing (HPC) technology in geophysics.