  Seismic images provided by reverse time migration can be contaminated by
artefacts associated with the migration of multiples. Multiples can corrupt
seismic images, producing both false positives, i.e. by focusing energy at
unphysical interfaces, and false negatives, i.e. by destructively interfering
with primaries. Multiple prediction / primary synthesis methods are usually
designed to operate on point source gathers, and can therefore be
computationally demanding when large problems are considered. A computationally
attractive scheme that operates on plane-wave datasets is derived by adapting a
data-driven point source gathers method, based on convolutions and
cross-correlations of the reflection response with itself, to include
plane-wave concepts. As a result, the presented algorithm allows fully
data-driven synthesis of primary reflections associated with plane-wave source
responses. Once primary plane-wave responses are estimated, they are used for
multiple-free imaging via plane-wave reverse time migration. Numerical tests of
increasing complexity demonstrate the potential of the proposed algorithm to
produce multiple-free images from only a small number of plane-wave datasets.
