Marine Seismic Ghost Removal via Multi-Component Data Interpolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Seismic surveys in marine environments face challenges due to surface ghosts in seismic data, which limit the useful bandwidth and hinder deep-water towing, especially in marine seismic data acquisition systems where surface ghosts interfere with the pressure wavefield, making it difficult to accurately interpret subterranean geological formations.
Innovation Solution
The technique involves processing particle motion and pressure data from multi-component seismic sensors to generate a data set that is indicative of a pressure wavefield at positions between streamers, substantially free of surface ghosts, using deghosting and cross-line interpolation methods to recover ghost-free data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If surface ghosts are present in seismic data, then data acquisition can be performed in marine environments, but the useful bandwidth is limited and deep-water towing is hindered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies deghosting techniques that convert the harmful surface ghost effects into beneficial information. By processing the ghost-contaminated pressure and particle motion data together, the system recovers the useful seismic signal while eliminating the ghost artifacts, thereby extending the useful bandwidth and enabling deep-water surveys.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses particle motion data as an intermediary to resolve the ghost problem in pressure data. By combining information from both pressure sensors and particle motion sensors, the system creates a composite data set that allows separation of the ghost-free signal from the ghost-contaminated data, effectively using one measurement type to clean another.
2Adaptability or versatility
If surface ghosts interfere with pressure wavefield, then seismic data interpretation becomes difficult, but multi-component sensors can be deployed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges pressure data and particle motion data into a unified processing framework. By combining these different sensor types and applying joint deghosting and interpolation techniques, the system recovers accurate pressure wavefield information that would be lost if only ghost-contaminated pressure data were used.
Solution Approach 2:
Particle motion data serves as an intermediary that enables recovery of the pressure wavefield. The cross-line particle motion measurements provide additional constraints that allow the system to separate ghost effects from the true pressure signal, thereby preserving information that would otherwise be lost.
3Measurement precision
If deghosting and interpolation methods are applied, then ghost-free data can be recovered, but processing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the deghosting and interpolation process into distinct, manageable steps: first applying deghosting to remove surface ghost effects, then applying cross-line interpolation to recover pressure data between streamers. This segmentation makes the complex processing tractable and computationally efficient.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies deghosting as a preliminary step before interpolation. By removing the ghost contamination first, the subsequent interpolation operates on cleaner data, which improves the overall efficiency and accuracy of the processing while reducing the computational burden compared to attempting both operations simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
A technique includes obtaining particle motion data and pressure data that are acquired by seismic sensors while in tow. The sensors are part of a plurality of streamers, and the pressure and particle motion data contain surface ghosts. The technique includes processing the particle motion data and the pressure data to generate a data set that is indicative of a pressure wavefield at positions between the streamers and is substantially free of the surface ghosts.