Tomography of diffraction-based focusing operators

Geophysics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. R217-R225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luiz Alberto Santos ◽  
Webe Joao Mansur ◽  
George A. McMechan

Diffractions carry the same kinematic information provided by common focus point operators (CFPOs). Thus CFPO and diffraction time trajectories may be used separately, or combined into a single unified tomography for velocity analysis. Velocity estimation by tomography of CFPOs reduces the depth-velocity ambiguity compared to two-way time tomography. CFPO estimation is complicated where there are event discontinuities and diffractions. This problem is overcome by using the kinematic information in diffractions in near-offset common-offset gathers. The procedure is illustrated using synthetic data, and a single-channel field seismic profile from the Blake Ridge (off the east coast of the United States). The results show the effectiveness of the proposed method for estimation of velocity from single channel seismic data, and for refinement of the velocity field from multichannel data. Both applications are cost-competitive.

Geophysics ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. V79-V86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hakan Karsli ◽  
Derman Dondurur ◽  
Günay Çifçi

Time-dependent amplitude and phase information of stacked seismic data are processed independently using complex trace analysis in order to facilitate interpretation by improving resolution and decreasing random noise. We represent seismic traces using their envelopes and instantaneous phases obtained by the Hilbert transform. The proposed method reduces the amplitudes of the low-frequency components of the envelope, while preserving the phase information. Several tests are performed in order to investigate the behavior of the present method for resolution improvement and noise suppression. Applications on both 1D and 2D synthetic data show that the method is capable of reducing the amplitudes and temporal widths of the side lobes of the input wavelets, and hence, the spectral bandwidth of the input seismic data is enhanced, resulting in an improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio. The bright-spot anomalies observed on the stacked sections become clearer because the output seismic traces have a simplified appearance allowing an easier data interpretation. We recommend applying this simple signal processing for signal enhancement prior to interpretation, especially for single channel and low-fold seismic data.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Beckel ◽  
Christopher Juhlin

Abstract. Understanding the development of post-glacial faults and their associated seismic activity is crucial for risk assessment in Scandinavia. However, imaging these features and their geological environment is complicated due to special challenges of their hardrock setting, such as weak impedance contrasts, sometimes high noise levels and crooked acquisition lines. A crooked line geometry can cause time shifts that seriously de-focus and deform reflections containing a crossdip component. Advanced processing methods like swath 3D processing and 3D pre-stack migration can, in principle, handle the crooked line geometry, but may fail when the noise level is too high. For these cases, the effects of reflector crossdip can be compensated for by introducing a linear correction term into the standard processing flow. However, existing implementations of the crossdip correction rely on a slant stack approach which can, for some geometries, lead to a duplication of reflections. Here we present a module for the crossdip correction that avoids the reflection duplication problem by shifting the reflections prior to stacking. Based on tests with synthetic data, we developed an iterative processing scheme where a sequence consisting of crossdip correction, velocity analysis and DMO correction is repeated until the stacked image converges. Using our new module to reprocess a reflection seismic profile over the post-glacial Burträsk Fault in Northern Sweden increased the image quality significantly. Strike and dip information extracted from the crossdip analysis helped to interpret a set of southeast dipping reflections as shear zones belonging to the regional scale Burträsk Shear Zone (BSZ), implying that the BSZ itself is not a vertical, but a southeast dipping feature. Our results demonstrate that the crossdip correction is a highly useful alternative to more sophisticated processing methods for noisy datasets. This highlights the often underestimated potential of rather simple, but noise-tolerant methods, in processing hardrock seismic data.


Solid Earth ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 581-598
Author(s):  
Ruth A. Beckel ◽  
Christopher Juhlin

Abstract. Understanding the development of post-glacial faults and their associated seismic activity is crucial for risk assessment in Scandinavia. However, imaging these features and their geological environment is complicated due to special challenges of their hardrock setting, such as weak impedance contrasts, often high noise levels and crooked acquisition lines. A crooked-line geometry can cause time shifts that seriously de-focus and deform reflections containing a cross-dip component. Advanced processing methods like swath 3-D processing and 3-D pre-stack migration can, in principle, handle the crooked-line geometry but may fail when the noise level is too high. For these cases, the effects of reflector cross-dip can be compensated for by introducing a linear correction term into the standard processing flow. However, existing implementations of the cross-dip correction rely on a slant stack approach which can, for some geometries, lead to a duplication of reflections. Here, we present a module for the cross-dip correction that avoids the reflection duplication problem by shifting the reflections prior to stacking. Based on tests with synthetic data, we developed an iterative processing scheme where a sequence consisting of cross-dip correction, velocity analysis and dip-moveout (DMO) correction is repeated until the stacked image converges. Using our new module to reprocess a reflection seismic profile over the post-glacial Burträsk fault in northern Sweden increased the image quality significantly. Strike and dip information extracted from the cross-dip analysis helped to interpret a set of southeast-dipping reflections as shear zones belonging to the regional-scale Burträsk Shear Zone (BSZ), implying that the BSZ itself is not a vertical but a southeast-dipping feature. Our results demonstrate that the cross-dip correction is a highly useful alternative to more sophisticated processing methods for noisy datasets. This highlights the often underestimated potential of rather simple but noise-tolerant methods in processing hardrock seismic data.


Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 1238-1249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenyue Liu

Prestack depth migration provides a powerful tool for velocity analysis in complex media. Both prominent approaches to velocity analysis—depth‐focusing analysis and residual‐curvature analysis, rely on approximate formulas to update velocity. Generally, these formulas are derived under the assumptions of horizontal reflector, lateral velocity homogeneity, or small offset. Therefore, the conventional methods for updating velocity lack accuracy and computational efficiency when velocity has large, lateral variations. Here, based on ray theory, I find the analytic representation for the derivative of imaged depths with respect to migration velocity. This derivative function characterizes a general relationship between residual moveout and residual velocity. Using the derivative function and the perturbation method, I derive a new formula to update velocity from residual moveout. In the derivation, I impose no limitation on offset, dip, or velocity distribution. Consequently, I revise the residual‐curvature‐analysis method for velocity estimation in the postmigrated domain. Furthermore, my formula provides sensitivity and error estimation for migration‐based velocity analysis, which is helpful in quantifying the reliability of the estimated velocity. The theory and methodology in this paper have been tested on synthetic data (including the Marmousi data).


Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-182
Author(s):  
Einar Maeland

Seismic migration with an erroneous velocity field produces an “image” that must be interpreted to obtain reliable velocity information. Inclusion of multiples in common‐shot data makes velocity estimation more difficult. Zero‐offset migration, based on the exploding reflector model, can be used to identify peg‐leg multiples by application of an extra time shift in the imaging condition. The time and the corresponding position when reflected energy focuses must be detected by inspection of the migrated data set. Formulas are derived and the method is tested on synthetic data from a multilayered medium.


Geophysics ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 62 (6) ◽  
pp. 1825-1838 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Ji

In areas with structurally complex geology, tomographic velocity analysis is often required to estimate velocities. In this paper I describe an algorithm for tomographic velocity estimation that uses plane‐wave synthesis imaging as a prestack migration. The classical iterative two‐step process (measures the traveltime errors with the current velocity model and then update the velocity model) is performed as follows. The events are picked in the image space after prestack migration with surface‐oriented plane‐wave synthesis imaging. the traveltime deviations are measured through residual‐moveout (RMO) velocity analysis in common‐surface‐location (CSL) gathers obtained by reflector‐oriented plane‐wave synthesis imaging, and the velocity update is calculated by inverting the traveltime deviations through a conjugate gradient. The results from synthetic data indicate that the tomographic method successfully estimates interval‐velocity models that lead to depth‐migrated images with no residual moveout.


Geophysics ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (6) ◽  
pp. U87-U97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Javad Khoshnavaz

Oriented time-domain imaging can be orders of magnitude faster than the routine techniques, which rely on velocity analysis. The term “oriented” refers to those techniques that use the information carried by local slopes. Time-domain dip moveout (DMO) correction, which has often been ignored by the seismic imaging community, has been coming back to attention within the last few years. I have developed an oriented time-domain DMO correction workflow that does not face the problematic loop between the dip-dependent and/or dip-independent velocities existing in the classic DMO correction algorithms. Use of the proposed approach is also advantageous over the previous oriented techniques; the proposed technique is independent of the wavefront curvature, and the input seismic data do not need to be sorted in two different domains. The application of the technique is limited to reflectors with a small curvature. The theory of the proposed technique is investigated on a simple synthetic data example and then applied to a 2D marine data set.


Geophysics ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 711-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Davies ◽  
E. J. Mercado

Several writers have proposed the use of multichannel filters for the elimination of coherent noise on seismic records. One filter of this type which can be constructed is a multichannel Wiener filter which has a multichannel input and a single channel output. In this form, it is applicable to data collected for vertical or horizontal common‐depth‐point stack processing. The choice of desired output characteristics for this Wiener filter is flexible and, for example, can be tuned to correspond to multichannel deconvolution. The results of the application of filters of this type to field and synthetic data, in general, show little if any advantage over single‐channel deconvolution. This failure appears to be connected with the low cross coherence of both noise and reflection signal on field‐recorded, common‐depth‐point traces.


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