  We design a primal-dual stabilized finite element method for the numerical
approximation of a data assimilation problem subject to the acoustic wave
equation. For the forward problem, piecewise affine, continuous, finite element
functions are used for the approximation in space and backward differentiation
is used in time. Stabilizing terms are added on the discrete level. The design
of these terms is driven by numerical stability and the stability of the
continuous problem, with the objective of minimizing the computational error.
Error estimates are then derived that are optimal with respect to the
approximation properties of the numerical scheme and the stability properties
of the continuous problem. The effects of discretizing the (smooth) domain
boundary and other perturbations in data are included in the analysis.
