Deghosting by echo‐deblending

A marine source generates both a direct wavefield and a ghost wavefield. This is caused by the strong surface reflectivity, resulting in a blended source array, the blending process being natural. The two unblended response wavefields correspond to the real source at the actual location below the water level and to the ghost source at the mirrored location above the water level. As a consequence, deghosting becomes deblending (‘echo‐deblending’) and can be carried out with a deblending algorithm. In this paper we present source deghosting by an iterative deblending algorithm that properly includes the angle dependence of the ghost: It represents a closed‐loop, non‐causal solution. The proposed echo‐deblending algorithm is also applied to the detector deghosting problem. The detector cable may be slanted, and shot records may be generated by blended source arrays, the blending being created by simultaneous sources. Similar to surface‐related multiple elimination the method is independent of the complexity of the subsurface; only what happens at and near the surface is relevant. This means that the actual sea state may cause the reflection coefficient to become frequency dependent, and the water velocity may not be constant due to temporal and lateral variations in the pressure, temperature, and salinity. As a consequence, we propose that estimation of the actual ghost model should be part of the echo‐deblending algorithm. This is particularly true for source deghosting, where interaction of the source wavefield with the surface may be far from linear. The echo‐deblending theory also shows how multi‐level source acquisition and multi‐level streamer acquisition can be numerically simulated from standard acquisition data. The simulated multi‐level measurements increase the performance of the echo‐deblending process. The output of the echo‐deblending algorithm on the source side consists of two ghost‐free records: one generated by the real source at the actual location below the water level and one generated by the ghost source at the mirrored location above the water level. If we apply our algorithm at the detector side as well, we end up with four ghost‐free shot records. All these records are input to migration. Finally, we demonstrate that the proposed echo‐deblending algorithm is robust for background noise.     

Evolution of deghosting process for single‐sensor streamer data from 2D to 3D

In marine acquisition, reflections of sound energy from the water–air interface result in ghosts in the seismic data, both in the source side and the receiver side. Ghosts limit the bandwidth of the useful signal and blur the final image. The process to separate the ghost and primary signals, called the deghosting process, can fill the ghost notch, broaden the frequency band, and help achieve high‐resolution images. Low‐signal‐to‐noise ratio near the notch frequencies and 3D effects are two challenges that the deghosting process has to face. In this paper, starting from an introduction to the deghosting process, we present and compare two strategies to solve the latter. The first is an adaptive mechanism that adjusts the deghosting operator to compensate for 3D effects or errors in source/receiver depth measurement. This method does not include explicitly the crossline slowness component and is not affected by the sparse sampling in the same direction. The second method is an inversion‐type approach that does include the crossline slowness component in the algorithm and handles the 3D effects explicitly. Both synthetic and field data examples in wide azimuth acquisition settings are shown to compare the two strategies. Both methods provide satisfactory results.     

立体气枪阵列延迟激发震源特性及在浅海区OBS探测中的应用

利用中、小容量气枪组成的立体气枪阵列延迟激发震源和海底地震仪(OBS)在我国北部浅海海域开展了人工地震深部地球物理探测试验.基于水深条件和压制水体虚反射、提升低频能量的需要,使气枪震源有足够的输出能量和高品质子波特性,研究了立体气枪阵列延迟激发震源工作机理,经远场子波理论模拟优选了组合参数并进行了海上试验工作.结果表明,中、小容量气枪组成的立体气枪阵列延迟激发震源,适应了浅水海域的激发环境,降低了由虚反射造成的局部陷波和干扰作用,有效地改善了OBS信号的品质,获得了Ps,Pg,PmP,Pn等多种震相.创新了由中、小容量气枪组成的立体气枪阵列延迟激发震源在浅海区OBS探测中的应用,也填补了南黄海海域深地震探测数据的空白,为南黄海、渤海深部地壳结构研究及含油气盆地形成演化研究提供了重要的基础资料.     

基于波动方程的上下缆地震数据鬼波压制方法研究

本文发展基于波动方程的上下缆鬼波压制方法,推导了上下缆地震波场频率波数域波动方程延拓合并公式.基于Fourier变换的波场解析延拓确保上下缆资料振幅相位的一致性,消除了长拖缆远偏移距信号的计算误差,同时具有较高的计算效率;上下缆地震波场的波动方程法合并有效解偶鬼波干涉,实现综合利用上下缆地震数据压制鬼波.理论模型数据和实际采集地震数据的测试表明了方法的有效性.     

Marine,seabed, and land seismic equipment for broadband acquisition: a review

The broadband capabilities of marine, seabed, and land seismic equipment are reviewed with respect to both the source and the receiver sides. In marine acquisition, the main issue at both ends of the spectrum relates to ghosts occurring at the sea surface. Broadband deghosting requires towing at variable depth to introduce notch diversity or using new equipment like multi‐component and/or low‐noise streamers. As a result, a doubling of the bandwidth from about three to six octaves (2.5–200 Hz) has been achieved. Such improvement is not yet observed for seabed surveys in spite of deghosting being a standard process on the receiver side. One issue may be related to the coupling of the particle motion sensor, particularly at high frequencies. For land acquisition, progress came from the vibrators. New shakers and control electronics using broadband sweeps made it possible to add two more octaves to the low‐frequency signal (from 8 to 2 Hz). Whereas conventional 10 Hz geophones are still able to record such low frequencies, 5 Hz high gain geophones or digital accelerometers enhance them to keep the signal above the noise floor. On the high end of the bandwidth, progress is not limited by equipment specifications. Here, the issue is related to a low signal‐to‐noise ratio due to the strong absorption that occurs during signal propagation. To succeed in enlarging the bandwidth, these improved equipment and sweeps must be complemented by a denser spatial sampling of the wavefield by point–source and point–receiver acquisition.     

最小二乘反演迭代算法在压制海上变深度缆采集数据虚反射中的应用

海水面的虚反射(鬼波)引起海上拖缆采集数据陷波,导致地震记录频带变窄,而近年发展的变深度缆采集技术,具有多样的陷波特征,通过专门的去虚反射处理方法可获得宽频数据.本文基于已有研究成果,将最小二乘反演迭代压制虚反射算法应用于某海上变深度缆宽频处理.基于频率波数域镜像记录生成方法获得镜像炮集记录,并采用最小二乘解从变深度缆原始和镜像炮集记录中提取上行波.针对镜像炮集记录生成受初始速度模型精度的影响,使得某深度缆接收的上行波和下行波之间的实际延迟时间存在误差,采用最小二乘反演迭代算法最优化计算下行波与上行波之间的平均延迟时间和上行波记录,并采用时空数据窗口滑动克服延迟时间随炮检距和目的层深度变化问题.合成数据及某海上实际变深度缆数据处理测试结果表明,该方法能较好地压制变深度缆由海水面产生的虚反射,能达到拓宽地震记录频带目的.     

两种斜缆采集正演模拟及虚反射压制效果分析

斜缆采集是近些年发展起来的海上采集技术,主要为了压制虚反射,获得高品质的宽频地震资料。线形斜缆和弧形斜缆是目前最常用的斜缆类型,能够获取较多的高低频信息。针对这两种斜缆采集方式,通过对比不同采集参数的地震记录及其消除虚反射后的数据,发现弧形斜缆采集观测系统明显优于线形斜缆,不仅在波场模拟中表现出较好的特征,而且在虚反射消除的过程中,引入了较小的噪声,能够获得较高信噪比的地震资料。分析模型测试的结果,证明海上地震勘探中更适合采用弧形斜缆。      

The use of low frequencies in a full‐waveform inversion and impedance inversion land seismic case study

Velocity model building and impedance inversion generally suffer from a lack of intermediate wavenumber content in seismic data. Intermediate wavenumbers may be retrieved directly from seismic data sets if enough low frequencies are recorded. Over the past years, improvements in acquisition have allowed us to obtain seismic data with a broader frequency spectrum. To illustrate the benefits of broadband acquisition, notably the recording of low frequencies, we discuss the inversion of land seismic data acquired in Inner Mongolia, China. This data set contains frequencies from 1.5–80 Hz. We show that the velocity estimate based on an acoustic full‐waveform inversion approach is superior to one obtained from reflection traveltime inversion because after full‐waveform inversion the background velocity conforms to geology. We also illustrate the added value of low frequencies in an impedance estimate.     

Seismic interferometry experiment in a shallow cased borehole using a seismic vibrator source‡

We present the results of a seismic interferometry experiment in a shallow cased borehole. The experiment is an initial study for subsequent borehole seismic surveys in an instrumented well site, where we plan to test other surface/borehole seismic techniques. The purpose of this application is to improve the knowledge of the reflectivity sequence and to verify the potential of the seismic interferometry approach to retrieve high‐frequency signals in the single well geometry, overcoming the loss and attenuation effects introduced by the overburden. We used a walkaway vertical seismic profile (VSP) geometry with a seismic vibrator to generate polarized vertical and horizontal components along a surface seismic line and an array of 3C geophones cemented outside the casing. The recorded traces are processed to obtain virtual sources in the borehole and to simulate single‐well gathers with a variable source‐receiver offset in the vertical array. We compare the results obtained by processing the field data with synthetic signals calculated by numerical simulation and analyse the signal bandwidth and amplitude versus offset to evaluate near‐field effects in the virtual signals. The application provides direct and reflected signals with improved bandwidth after vibrator signal deconvolution. Clear reflections are detected in the virtual seismic sections in agreement with the geology and other surface and borehole seismic data recorded with conventional seismic exploration techniques.     

Seeing below the basalt – offshore Faroes

Exploration in the basalt covered areas of the Faroes offshore has always suffered from poor seismic imaging below the basalt. Long offset 2D and 3D seismic data were acquired and a significant improvement in the seismic image below top basalt has been achieved. Deep towing of the source and receiver cables helped by extending the seismic bandwidth towards lower frequencies. Bubble‐tuned rather than conventional peak‐tuned source arrays gave little, if any, incremental benefit. The improvement in the imaging comes primarily from the approach to processing the data. High frequencies (dominantly noise) are filtered out of the data early in the processing to concentrate on the low frequency data. Careful multiple removal is important with several passes of demultiple being applied to the data using both Surface‐Related Multiple Elimination (SRME) and Radon techniques. Velocity analysis is performed as an iterative process taking into account the geological model. Reprocessing legacy 2D surveys, acquired with wide‐ranging parameters, using these processing techniques improved these datasets significantly, indicating that sub‐basalt imaging seems to be more sensitive to processing than to the choice of acquisition parameters.     

Theoretical study on multi‐level source design

This paper studies aspects that influence the de‐ghosting performance of marine multi‐level sources based on a modified Johnson model. The normalized squared error between actual signature and its corresponding ghost‐free signature is introduced to evaluate the multi‐level source design. The results show that optimum depth combinations and volume combinations exist in the design. However, there is also some flexibility in the volume combination which makes it possible to optimize with respect to residual bubble oscillation. By considering both operational aspects and performance, we propose that three or four levels in a multi‐level source are reasonable. Compared to a horizontal source, a multi‐level source can be designed to reduce the notch effect, strengthen the down‐going energy and improve the energy transmission directivity. Studies of the influence of depth and firing time deviations indicate that a multi‐level source is more stable than a normal horizontal source in an operational environment.     

Rough seas and time-lapse seismic

Time‐lapse seismic surveying has become an accepted tool for reservoir monitoring applications, thus placing a high premium on data repeatability. One factor affecting data repeatability is the influence of the rough sea‐surface on the ghost reflection and the resulting seismic wavelets of the sources and receivers. During data analysis, the sea‐surface is normally assumed to be stationary and, indeed, to be flat. The non‐flatness of the sea‐surface introduces amplitude and phase perturbations to the source and receiver responses and these can affect the time‐lapse image. We simulated the influence of rough sea‐surfaces on seismic data acquisition. For a typical seismic line with a 48‐fold stack, a 2‐m significant‐wave‐height sea introduces RMS errors of about 5–10% into the stacked data. This level of error is probably not important for structural imaging but could be significant for time‐lapse surveying when the expected difference anomaly is small. The errors are distributed differently for sources and receivers because of the different ways they are towed. Furthermore, the source wavelet is determined by the sea shape at the moment the shot is fired, whereas the receiver wavelet is time‐varying because the sea moves significantly during the seismic record.     

High-resolution frequency-domain Radon transform and variable-depth streamer data deghosting

Receiver ghost reflections adversely affect variable-depth streamer (VDS) data acquisition. In addition, the frequency notches caused by the interference between receiver ghosts and primary waves strongly affect seismic data processing and imaging. We developed a high-resolution Radon transform algorithm and used it to predict receiver ghosts from VDS data. The receiver ghost reflections are subtracted and removed from the raw data. We propose a forward Radon transform operator of VDS data in the frequency domain and, based on the ray paths of the receiver ghosts, we propose an inverse Radon transform operator. We apply the proposed methodology to model and field data with good results. We use matching and subtracting modules of commercially available seismic data processing software to remove the receiver ghosts. The frequency notches are compensated and the effective frequency bandwidth of the seismic data broadens.     

Noise transfer in variable‐depth streamer deghosting

Single‐component towed‐streamer marine data acquisition records the pressure variations of the upgoing compressional waves followed by the polarity‐reversed pressure variations of downgoing waves, creating sea‐surface ghost events in the data. The sea‐surface ghost for constant‐depth towed‐streamer marine data acquisition is usually characterised by a ghost operator acting on the upgoing waves, which can be formulated as a filtering process in the frequency–wavenumber domain. The deghosting operation, usually via the application of the inverse Wiener filter related to the ghost operator, acts on the signal as well as the noise. The noise power transfer into the deghosted data is proportional to the power spectrum of the inverse Wiener filter and is amplifying the noise strongly at the notch wavenumbers and frequencies of the ghost operator. For variable‐depth streamer acquisition, the sea‐surface ghost cannot be described any longer as a wavenumber–frequency operator but as a linear relationship between the wavenumber–frequency representation of the upgoing waves at the sea surface and the data in the space–frequency domain. In this article, we investigate how the application of the inverse process acts on noise. It turns out that the noise magnification is less severe with variable‐depth streamer data, as opposed to constant depth, and is inversely proportional to the local slant of the streamer. We support this statement via application of the deghosting process to real and numerical random noise. We also propose a more general concept of a wavenumber–frequency ghost power transfer function, applicable for variable‐depth streamer acquisition, and demonstrate that the inverse of the proposed variable‐depth ghost power transfer function can be used to approximately quantify the action of the variable‐depth streamer deghosting process on noise.     

Blended-acquisition design of irregular geometries towards faster,cheaper, safer and better seismic surveying

The application of blended acquisition has drawn considerable attention owing to its ability to improve the operational efficiency as well as the data quality and health, safety and environment performance. Furthermore, the acquisition of less data contributes to the business aspect, while the desired data density is still realizable via subsequent data reconstruction. The use of fewer detectors and sources also minimizes operational risks in the field. Therefore, a combined implementation of these technologies potentially enhances the value of a seismic survey further. One way to encourage this is to minimize any imperfection in deblending and data reconstruction during processing. In addition, one may derive survey parameters that enable a further improvement in these processes as introduced in this study. The proposed survey design workflow iteratively performs the following steps to derive the survey parameters responsible for source blending as well as the spatial sampling of detectors and sources. The first step is the application of blending and sampling operators to unblended and well-sampled data. We then apply closed-loop deblending and data reconstruction. The residue for a given design from this step is evaluated and subsequently used by genetic algorithms to simultaneously update the survey parameters related to both blending and spatial sampling. The updated parameters are fed into the next iteration until they satisfy the given termination criteria. We also propose a repeated encoding sequence to form a parameter sequence in genetic algorithms, making the size of problem space manageable. The results of the proposed workflow are outlined using blended dispersed source array data incorporating different scenarios that represent acquisition in marine, transition zone and land environments. Clear differences attributed solely to the parameter design are easily recognizable. Additionally, a comparison among different optimization schemes illustrates the ability of genetic algorithms along with a repeated encoding sequence to find better solutions within a computationally affordable time. The optimized parameters yield a notable enhancement in the deblending and data reconstruction quality and consequently provide optimal acquisition scenarios.     

Comparison of surface seismic sources at the CO2SINK site, Ketzin, Germany

In 2004 three seismic surface sources (VIBSIST, accelerated weight drop and MiniVib) were tested in a pilot study at the Ketzin test site, Germany, a study site for geological storage of CO₂ (EU project CO₂SINK). The main objectives of this pilot study were to 1) evaluate the response of the Ketzin site to reflection seismics, especially at the planned injection depth, 2) test different acquisition parameters and 3) use the results to guide the planning of the 3D survey. As part of these objectives, we emphasize the source performance comparison in this study. The sources were tested along two perpendicular lines of 2.4 km length each. Data were acquired by shooting at all stations (source and receiver spacing of 20 m) on both lines, allowing common‐midpoint stacked sections to be produced. The sources' signal characteristics based on signal‐to‐noise ratio, signal penetration and frequency content of raw shot records were analysed and stacked sections were compared. The results show that all three surface sources are suitable for reflection seismic studies down to a depth of about 1 km and provide enough bandwidth for resolving the geological targets at the site, i.e., the Weser and Stuttgart Formations. Near surface conditions, especially a thick weathering layer present in this particular area, strongly influence the data quality, as indicated by the difference in reflectivity and signal‐to‐noise ratio of the two common‐midpoint lines. The stacked sections of the MiniVib source show the highest frequency signals down to about 500 ms traveltime (approximately 500 m depth) but also the shallowest signal penetration depth. The VIBSIST source generates signals with the highest signal‐to‐noise ratio and greatest signal penetration depth of the tested sources. In particular, reflections below 900 ms (approximately 1 km depth) are best imaged by the VIBSIST source. The weight drop performance lies in between these two sources and might be recommended as an appropriate source for a 3D survey at this site because of the shorter production time compared to the VIBSIST and MiniVib sources.     

地震资料宽频处理技术在天然气水合物矿体描述中的应用研究

针对天然气水合物钻探难以有效解决的矿体空间展布等难点,提出一套基于自适应鬼波压制技术的地震宽频处理技术,有效改善资料分辨率.首先采用上下行波场分离的鬼波压制技术实现对震源端和电缆端鬼波的压制;然后通过高精度网格层析反演速度建模技术获取高质量速度场,利用叠前深度偏移成像进一步提高水合物层成像精度.实践表明,相对于常规处理...     

频率慢度域自适应迭代反演算法压制海上倾斜缆鬼波方法及其应用

海上倾斜缆采集技术具有多样的陷波特征,通过去鬼波处理可获得宽频数据.针对海水面波浪起伏及缆深误差引起的鬼波延迟时间估计误差以及崎岖海底和目的层深度变化使得鬼波和一次反射波的振幅差异系数随偏移距的变化而难以给定一个固定值的问题,本文推导出频率慢度域中鬼波滤波算子以及自适应迭代反演求解上行波算法,该鬼波滤波算子与不同水平慢度对应的鬼波和一次反射波的振幅差异系数以及鬼波延迟时间有关.并基于计算出的理论下行波与实际下行波之间的平方误差最小理论实现自适应反演迭代最优计算该振幅差异系数和鬼波延迟时间.合成的及某海上采集的倾斜缆数据去鬼波处理结果表明,频率慢度域自适应迭代反演算法能较好地去除海上变深度缆鬼波,能达到拓宽地震记录频带目的.     

Well tie for broadband seismic data

The seismic industry is increasingly acquiring broadband data in order to reap the benefits of extra low‐ and high‐frequency contents. At the low end, as the sharp low‐cut decay gets closer to zero frequency, it becomes harder for a well tie to estimate the low‐frequency response correctly. The fundamental difficulty is that well logs are too short to allow accurate estimation of the long‐period content of the data. Three distinctive techniques, namely parametric constant phase, frequency‐domain least squares with multi‐tapering, and Bayesian time domain with broadband priors, are introduced in this paper to provide a robust solution to the wavelet estimation problem for broadband seismic data. Each of these techniques has a different mathematical foundation that would enable one to explore a wide range of solutions that could be used on a case‐by‐case basis depending on the problem at hand. A case study from the North West Shelf Australia is used to analyse the performance of the proposed techniques. Cross‐validation is proposed as a robust quality control measure for evaluating well‐tie applications. It is observed that when the seismic data are carefully processed, then the constant phase approach would likely offer a good solution. The frequency‐domain method does not assume a constant phase. This flexibility makes it prone to over‐fitting when the phase is approximately constant. Broadband priors for the time‐domain least‐squares method are found to perform well in defining low‐frequency side lobes to the wavelet.     

基于高灵敏度检波器数据的分频匹配滤波方法及其应用(英文)

具有较高自然频率的高灵敏度检波器在采集数据时可以通过压制低频信号来相对提高高频能量,但这也造成了其低频响应差的问题,如果将高灵敏度数据与常规数据进行优势组合,就可以达到拓宽频带的目的。为此,本文提出分频段匹配滤波的方法,即在保持常规数据低频优势的前提下,对其高频端进行匹配滤波,实现不同频带范围内的优势互补,从而改善地震记录。通过引入不同主频的雷克子波模拟得到具有常规数据和高灵敏度数据特点的理论模型,论证了分频匹配滤波方法的可行性。在对野外单炮地震记录处理中发现,分频匹配滤波方法拓宽了地震记录的有效频带宽度,提高了地震记录的分辨率。