The 3D seismic data in the prestack domain are contaminated by impulse noise. We have adopted a robust vector median filter (VMF) for attenuating the impulse noise from 3D seismic data cubes. The proposed filter has two attractive features. First, it is robust; the vector median that is the output of the filter not only has a minimum distance to all input data vectors, but it also has a high similarity to the original data vector. Second, it is structure adaptive; the filter is implemented following the local structure of coherent seismic events. The application of the robust and structure-adaptive VMF is demonstrated using an example data set acquired from an area with strong sedimentary rhythmites composed of steep-dipping thin layers. This robust filter significantly improves the signal-to-noise ratio of seismic data while preserving any discontinuity of reflections and maintaining the fidelity of amplitudes, which will facilitate the reservoir characterization that follows.
On the fast modified vector median filter