Perfect zerophase sections,fact or fiction?

The desired result of an optimum seismic data processing sequence, is a broad band zerophase section, i.e. a bandpassed version of the actual reflectivity function. However, a lot of socalled zerophase-sections still carry a significant phase-error, which is due to unrealistic assumptions in the processing stream in terms of the design of standard processes as for example deconvolution. The two major issues here are the color of the reflectivity series and the misuse of prewhitening. If not properly handled they lead to a phase- and amplitude spectrum bias in the final section, preventing it from being zerophase. Whereas the reflectivity bias leads to a phase error of 50 to 90 deg, the prewhitening bias results in a phase error, which is directly proportional to the logarithm of the actual prewhitening factor.Therefore, if the spike deconvolution process is applied in a time-variant manner, as a consequence a time-variant and usually frequency dependent phase error is introduced! In this article we have made an effort to include sufficient detail to facilitate a clear understanding of the problems involved.The standard processing flow should have a minimum-delay transform and spike deconvolution prestack, followed by a zerophase transform poststack, where the residual wavelet is assumed to be minimum phase.     

Sparsity‐enhanced wavelet deconvolution

We propose a three‐step bandwidth enhancing wavelet deconvolution process, combining linear inverse filtering and non‐linear reflectivity construction based on a sparseness assumption. The first step is conventional Wiener deconvolution. The second step consists of further spectral whitening outside the spectral bandwidth of the residual wavelet after Wiener deconvolution, i.e., the wavelet resulting from application of the Wiener deconvolution filter to the original wavelet, which usually is not a perfect spike due to band limitations of the original wavelet. We specifically propose a zero‐phase filtered sparse‐spike deconvolution as the second step to recover the reflectivity dominantly outside of the bandwidth of the residual wavelet after Wiener deconvolution. The filter applied to the sparse‐spike deconvolution result is proportional to the deviation of the amplitude spectrum of the residual wavelet from unity, i.e., it is of higher amplitude; the closer the amplitude spectrum of the residual wavelet is to zero, but of very low amplitude, the closer it is to unity. The third step consists of summation of the data from the two first steps, basically adding gradually the contribution from the sparse‐spike deconvolution result at those frequencies at which the residual wavelet after Wiener deconvolution has small amplitudes. We propose to call this technique “sparsity‐enhanced wavelet deconvolution”. We demonstrate the technique on real data with the deconvolution of the (normal‐incidence) source side sea‐surface ghost of marine towed streamer data. We also present the extension of the proposed technique to time‐varying wavelet deconvolution.     

Estimation of an optimal mixed-phase inverse filter

Inverse filtering is applied to seismic data to remove the effect of the wavelet and to obtain an estimate of the reflectivity series. In many cases the wavelet is not known, and only an estimate of its autocorrelation function (ACF) can be computed. Solving the Yule-Walker equations gives the inverse filter which corresponds to a minimum-delay wavelet. When the wavelet is mixed delay, this inverse filter produces a poor result.
By solving the extended Yule-Walker equations with the ACF of lag α on the main diagonal of the filter equations, it is possible to decompose the inverse filter into a finite-length filter convolved with an infinite-length filter. In a previous paper we proposed a mixed-delay inverse filter where the finite-length filter is maximum delay and the infinite-length filter is minimum delay.
Here, we refine this technique by analysing the roots of the Z -transform polynomial of the finite-length filter. By varying the number of roots which are placed inside the unit circle of the mixed-delay inverse filter, at most 2 ^α different filters are obtained. Applying each filter to a small data set (say a CMP gather), we choose the optimal filter to be the one for which the output has the largest L ^p -norm, with p =5. This is done for increasing values of α to obtain a final optimal filter. From this optimal filter it is easy to construct the inverse wavelet which may be used as an estimate of the seismic wavelet.
The new procedure has been applied to a synthetic wavelet and to an airgun wavelet to test its performance, and also to verify that the reconstructed wavelet is close to the original wavelet. The algorithm has also been applied to prestack marine seismic data, resulting in an improved stacked section compared with the one obtained by using a minimum-delay filter.     

Bayesian frequency-domain blind deconvolution of ground-penetrating radar data

Enhancing the resolution and accuracy of surface ground-penetrating radar (GPR) reflection data by inverse filtering to recover a zero-phased band-limited reflectivity image requires a deconvolution technique that takes the mixed-phase character of the embedded wavelet into account. In contrast, standard stochastic deconvolution techniques assume that the wavelet is minimum phase and, hence, often meet with limited success when applied to GPR data. We present a new general-purpose blind deconvolution algorithm for mixed-phase wavelet estimation and deconvolution that (1) uses the parametrization of a mixed-phase wavelet as the convolution of the wavelet's minimum-phase equivalent with a dispersive all-pass filter, (2) includes prior information about the wavelet to be estimated in a Bayesian framework, and (3) relies on the assumption of a sparse reflectivity. Solving the normal equations using the data autocorrelation function provides an inverse filter that optimally removes the minimum-phase equivalent of the wavelet from the data, which leaves traces with a balanced amplitude spectrum but distorted phase. To compensate for the remaining phase errors, we invert in the frequency domain for an all-pass filter thereby taking advantage of the fact that the action of the all-pass filter is exclusively contained in its phase spectrum. A key element of our algorithm and a novelty in blind deconvolution is the inclusion of prior information that allows resolving ambiguities in polarity and timing that cannot be resolved using the sparseness measure alone. We employ a global inversion approach for non-linear optimization to find the all-pass filter phase values for each signal frequency. We tested the robustness and reliability of our algorithm on synthetic data with different wavelets, 1-D reflectivity models of different complexity, varying levels of added noise, and different types of prior information. When applied to realistic synthetic 2-D data and 2-D field data, we obtain images with increased temporal resolution compared to the results of standard processing.     

地震子波处理的二步法反褶积方法研究

针对玛湖斜坡区三块三维地震资料和赛汉塔拉凹陷二块三维地震资料连片处理中的特点,结合地质任务和处理目标要求,提出了地震数据连片处理中的地震子波处理的方法.该方法主要体现了两次反褶积,一次是采用地表一致性反褶积,将不同震源的频带拓宽到一个标准上;再一次采用相位校正反褶积,将不同震源的数据校正到相同相位上.为了保证提取的相位校正反褶积算子稳定,采用叠后地震道提取（主要考虑到叠后地震道信噪比高,算子稳定性强）,然后将该算子应用到叠前地震道,进行相位校正.     

Klauder wavelet removal before vibroseis deconvolution

The spiking deconvolution of a field seismic trace requires that the seismic wavelet on the trace be minimum phase. On a dynamite trace, the component wavelets due to the effects of recording instruments, coupling, attenuation, ghosts, reverberations and other types of multiple reflection are minimum phase. The seismic wavelet is the convolution of the component wavelets. As a result, the seismic wavelet on a dynamite trace is minimum phase and thus can be removed by spiking deconvolution. However, on a correlated vibroseis trace, the seismic wavelet is the convolution of the zero-phase Klauder wavelet with the component minimum-phase wavelets. Thus the seismic wavelet occurring on a correlated vibroseis trace does not meet the minimum-phase requirement necessary for spiking deconvolution, and the final result of deconvolution is less than optimal. Over the years, this problem has been investigated and various methods of correction have been introduced. In essence, the existing methods of vibroseis deconvolution make use of a correction that converts (on the correlated trace) the Klauder wavelet into its minimum-phase counterpart. The seismic wavelet, which is the convolution of the minimum-phase counterpart with the component minimum-phase wavelets, is then removed by spiking deconvolution. This means that spiking deconvolution removes both the constructed minimum-phase Klauder counterpart and the component minimum-phase wavelets. Here, a new method is proposed: instead of being converted to minimum phase, the Klauder wavelet is removed directly. The spiking deconvolution can then proceed unimpeded as in the case of a dynamite record. These results also hold for gap predictive deconvolution because gap deconvolution is a special case of spiking deconvolution in which the deconvolved trace is smoothed by the front part of the minimum-phase wavelet that was removed.     

A COMPARISON OF STATISTICAL AND DETERMINISTIC WIENER DECONVOLUTION OF DEEP-TOW SEISMIC DATA*

Wiener ‘spiking’ deconvolution of seismic traces in the absence of a known source wavelet relies upon the use of digital filters, which are optimum in a least-squares error sense only if the wavelet to be deconvolved is minimum phase. In the marine environment in particular this condition is frequently violated, since bubble pulse oscillations result in source signatures which deviate significantly from minimum phase. The degree to which the deconvolution is impaired by such violation is generally difficult to assess, since without a measured source signature there is no optimally deconvolved trace with which the spiked trace may be compared. A recently developed near-bottom seismic profiler used in conjunction with a surface air gun source produces traces which contain the far-field source signature as the first arrival. Knowledge of this characteristic wavelet permits the design of two-sided Wiener spiking and shaping filters which can be used to accurately deconvolve the remainder of the trace. In this paper the performance of such optimum-lag filters is compared with that of the zero-lag (one-sided) operators which can be evaluated from the reflected arrival sequence alone by assuming a minimum phase source wavelet. Results indicate that the use of zero-lag operators on traces containing non-minimum phase wavelets introduces significant quantities of noise energy into the seismic record. Signal to noise ratios may however be preserved or even increased during deconvolution by the use of optimum-lag spiking or shaping filters. A debubbling technique involving matched filtering of the trace with the source wavelet followed by optimum-lag Wiener deconvolution did not give a higher quality result than can be obtained simply by the application of a suitably chosen Wiener shaping filter. However, cross correlation of an optimum-lag spike filtered trace with the known ‘actual output’ of the filter when presented with the source signature is found to enhance signal-to-noise ratio whilst maintaining improved resolution.     

DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING OF CONVERTED pS-WAVES*

The earth's surface can be an effective means of generating converted pS-waves. Due to their nearly symmetrical ray path, conventional processing techniques can be used. As the wave is generated by reflection at the surface or at the base of surface layers one can expect a general filtering effect in the data for individual ray paths of a single shot gather. To balance the spectra of the traces a multiple-trace filter was used. This filter can be fully determined in the time domain using the prediction-error operators of the individual traces. The preferred mean spectrum to colour the traces was the geometric mean. As the process of spectral balancing requires a minimum-delay wavelet, the recording instrument was replaced by its corresponding minimum-phase equivalent. This process can also be carried out effectively in the time domain. Results of the application of minimum-delay transform and spectral balancing are discussed for single shot gathers and for the general improvement of the final stack.     

OPTIMUM DIGITAL FILTERS FOR SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO ENHANCEMENT*

One of the main objectives of seismic digital processing is the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio in the recorded data. Wiener filters have been successfully applied in this capacity, but alternate filtering devices also merit our attention. Two such systems are the matched filter and the output energy filter. The former is better known to geophysicists as the crosscorrelation filter, and has seen widespread use for the processing of vibratory source data, while the latter is. much less familiar in seismic work. The matched filter is designed such that ideally the presence of a given signal is indicated by a single large deflection in the output. The output energy filter ideally reveals the presence of such a signal by producing a longer burst of energy in the time interval where the signal occurs. The received seismic trace is assumed to be an additive mixture of signal and noise. The shape of the signal must be known in order to design the matched filter, but only the autocorrelation function of this signal need be known to obtain the output energy filter. The derivation of these filters differs according to whether the noise is white or colored. In the former case the noise autocorrelation function consists of only a single spike at lag zero, while in the latter the shape of this noise autocorrelation function is arbitrary. We propose a novel version of the matched filter. Its memory function is given by the minimum-delay wavelet whose autocorrelation function is computed from selected gates of an actual seismic trace. For this reason explicit knowledge of the signal shape is not required for its design; nevertheless, its performance level is not much below that achievable with ordinary matched filters. We call this new filter the “mini-matched” filter. With digital computation in mind, the design criteria are formulated and optimized with time as a discrete variable. We illustrate the techniques with simple numerical examples, and discuss many of the interesting properties that these filters exhibit.     

基于带状混合矩阵ICA实现地震盲反褶积

基于对地震反褶积本质上是一个盲过程的认识,引入高阶统计学盲源分离技术——独立分量分析（ICA）实现地震盲反褶积.在无噪声假设条件下,利用地震记录时间延迟矩阵和地震子波带状褶积矩阵,将地震褶积模型转化为一般线性混合ICA模型,采用FastICA算法,将带状性质作为先验信息,实现所谓带状ICA算法（B\|ICA）,得到个数与子波算子长度相等的多个估计反射系数序列和估计子波序列,最后利用褶积模型提供的附加信息从中优选出最佳的反射系数序列及相应的地震子波.模型数据和实际二维地震道数值算例表明：对于统计性反褶积,在不对反射系数作高斯白噪假设,不对子波作最小相位假设的所谓“全盲”条件下,基于ICA方法（反射系数非高斯分布,地震子波非最小相位）可以较好解决地震盲反褶积问题,是基于二阶统计特性的地震信号统计性反褶积方法的提升,具有可行性和应用前景.     

用遗传算法实现地震信号反褶积

遗传算法作为寻优手段具有全局优化和很好的稳定性．本文将遗传算法用于地震信号反褶积处理，与已往方法相比它具有更好的分辨率和稳定性我们采用Bernoulli－Gaussian模型和ARMA模型分别描述地震反射系数序列和地震子波，用最大似然和最小预测误差准则分别构造用于估计反射系数序列和地震子波的目标函数，用遗传算法优化目标函数，以实现地震信号反褶积．     

CONTROLE OPTIQUE DES TRAITEMENTS NUMÉRIQUES DÉCONVOLUTION OPTIQUE DES TRACES SISMIQUES *

A checking method of digital multiple elimination and of deconvolution processing using computers and based on optical autocorrelation is first presented. Comparison between autocorrelograms before and after a single or several processing steps allows to estimate, on one hand, the strength of the deconvolution obtained, known by the study of the central parts which is in fact the signal autocorrelation, on the other hand, the multiple elimination given by the study of side parts of the autocorrelogram. Further, an optical deconvolution procedure, is presented. For this, it is supposed that the signal is known and optically reproduced in the same way as the one of a trace. This is achieved by sphero-cylindrical optics allowing trace to trace processing. Deconvolution is carried out in the spectral domain by inserting a filter in the Fourier plane of the optical unit, the transmission law of which expresses the Fourier transform of the antisignal. This filter device introduces a holographic technique called Fourier holography, in such a way phases as well as amplitudes are preserved. Several results are presented from a synthetic section and also from field sections.     

An Approximation to Sparse-Spike Reflectivity Using the Gold Deconvolution Method

Wiener deconvolution is generally used to improve resolution of the seismic sections, although it has several important assumptions. I propose a new method named Gold deconvolution to obtain Earth’s sparse-spike reflectivity series. The method uses a recursive approach and requires the source waveform to be known, which is termed as Deterministic Gold deconvolution. In the case of the unknown wavelet, it is estimated from seismic data and the process is then termed as Statistical Gold deconvolution. In addition to the minimum phase, Gold deconvolution method also works for zero and mixed phase wavelets even on the noisy seismic data. The proposed method makes no assumption on the phase of the input wavelet, however, it needs the following assumptions to produce satisfactory results: (1) source waveform is known, if not, it should be estimated from seismic data, (2) source wavelet is stationary at least within a specified time gate, (3) input seismic data is zero offset and does not contain multiples, and (4) Earth consists of sparse spike reflectivity series. When applied in small time and space windows, the Gold deconvolution algorithm overcomes nonstationarity of the input wavelet. The algorithm uses several thousands of iterations, and generally a higher number of iterations produces better results. Since the wavelet is extracted from the seismogram itself for the Statistical Gold deconvolution case, the Gold deconvolution algorithm should be applied via constant-length windows both in time and space directions to overcome the nonstationarity of the wavelet in the input seismograms. The method can be extended into a two-dimensional case to obtain time-and-space dependent reflectivity, although I use one-dimensional Gold deconvolution in a trace-by-trace basis. The method is effective in areas where small-scale bright spots exist and it can also be used to locate thin reservoirs. Since the method produces better results for the Deterministic Gold deconvolution case, it can be used for the deterministic deconvolution of the data sets with known source waveforms such as land Vibroseis records and marine CHIRP systems.     

An application of the autoregressive extrapolation technique to enhance deconvolution results: a 2D marine data example

Interpreting a post‐stack seismic section is difficult due to the band‐limited nature of the seismic data even post deconvolution. Deconvolution is a process that is universally applied to extend the bandwidth of seismic data. However, deconvolution falls short of this task as low and high frequencies of the deconvolved data are either still missing or contaminated by noise. In this paper we use the autoregressive extrapolation technique to recover these missing frequencies, using the high signal‐to‐noise ratio (S/N) portions of the spectrum of deconvolved data. I introduce here an algorithm to extend the bandwidth of deconvolved data. This is achieved via an autoregressive extrapolation technique, which has been widely used to replace missing or corrupted samples of data in signal processing. This method is performed in the spectral domain. The spectral band to be extrapolated using autoregressive prediction filters is first selected from the part of the spectrum that has a high signal‐to‐noise ratio (S/N) and is then extended. As there can be more than one zone of good S/N in the spectrum, the results of prediction filter design and extrapolation from three different bands are averaged. When the spectrum of deconvolved data is extended in this way, the results show higher vertical resolution to a degree that the final seismic data closely resemble what is considered to be a reflectivity sequence of the layered medium. This helps to obtain acoustic impedance with inversion by stable integration. The results show that autoregressive spectral extrapolation highly increases vertical resolution and improves horizon tracking to determine continuities and faults. This increase in coherence ultimately yields a more interpretable seismic section.     

Spectral factorization technique for estimation of an ARMA operator for multichannel deconvolution of seismic data

A new spectral factorization method is presented for the estimation of a causal as well as a causally invertible ARMA operator from the correlation sequence of seismic traces. The method has been implemented for multichannel deconvolution of seismic traces with the aim of exploiting the trace-to-trace correlation that exists within seismograms. A layered earth model with a small reflectivity sequence has been considered, and the seismic traces have been considered as the output of a linear system driven by white noise reflection coefficient sequences. The present method is the concatenation of three algorithms, namely Kung's method for state variable ( F , G , H ) realization using a singular value decomposition (SVD) algorithm, Faurre's technique for computation of the strong spectral factor and Leverrier's algorithm for ARMA representation of the spectral factor. The inverted ARMA operator is used as a recursive filter for deconvolution of seismic traces. In the example shown, two traces with a covariance sequence of 160 ms length have been considered for multichannel deconvolution of stacked seismic traces. The results presented, when compared with those obtained from a conventional deconvolution algorithm, have shown encouraging prospects.     

利用基于子波估计的频谱校正方法提高Q值估计精度(英文)

用Q值刻画的地震衰减在地震信号处理和解释中具有很广泛的应用。利用反射地震资料进行Q值估计需要解决地震子波和反射系数序列耦合的问题。从反射地震资料中去除反射系数序列的影响,这个过程称为频谱校正。本文提出了一种基于子波估计的求取Q值的方法,进而设计了一个反Q滤波器。该方法利用反射地震资料的高阶统计量进行子波估计,并利用所估计子波实现频谱校正。我们利用合成数据实验给出了质心频移法与频谱比法这两种常用的Q值估计方法在不同参数设置下的性能。人工合成数据和实际数据处理表明,利用本文提出的方法进行频谱校正后,可以得到可靠的Q值估计。经过反Q滤波,地震数据的高频部分得到了有效地恢复。     

基于广义高斯分布的地震盲反褶积方法研究

Bussgang算法是针对褶积盲源分离问题提出的,本文将其用于地震盲反褶积处理.由于广义高斯概率密度函数具有逼近任意概率密度函数的能力,从反射系数序列的统计特征出发,引入广义高斯分布来体现反射系数序列超高斯分布特征.依据反射系数序列的统计特征和Bussgang算法原理,建立以Kullback-Leibler距离为非高斯性度量的目标函数,并导出算法中涉及到的无记忆非线性函数,最终实现了地震盲反褶积.模型试算和实际资料处理结果表明,该方法能较好地适应非最小相位系统,能够同时实现地震子波和反射系数估计,有效地提高地震资料分辨率.     

Nonstationary deconvolution using maximum kurtosis optimization

Deconvolution is an essential step for high-resolution imaging in seismic data processing. The frequency and phase of the seismic wavelet change through time during wave propagation as a consequence of seismic absorption. Therefore, wavelet estimation is the most vital step of deconvolution, which plays the main role in seismic processing and inversion. Gabor deconvolution is an effective method to eliminate attenuation effects. Since Gabor transform does not prepare the information about the phase, minimum-phase assumption is usually supposed to estimate the phase of the wavelet. This manner does not return the optimum response where the source wavelet would be dominantly a mixed phase. We used the kurtosis maximization algorithm to estimate the phase of the wavelet. First, we removed the attenuation effect in the Gabor domain and computed the amplitude spectrum of the source wavelet; then, we rotated the seismic trace with a constant phase to reach the maximum kurtosis. This procedure was repeated in moving windows to obtain the time-varying phase changes. After that, the propagating wavelet was generated to solve the inversion problem of the convolutional model. We showed that the assumption of minimum phase does not reflect a suitable response in the case of mixed-phase wavelets. Application of this algorithm on synthetic and real data shows that subtle reflectivity information could be recovered and vertical seismic resolution is significantly improved.     

基于PSO的地震盲反褶积方法

本文基于地层反射系数非高斯的统计特性,在反褶积输出单位方差约束下,将反褶积输出的负熵表示为非多项式函数,作为盲反褶积的目标函数,然后采用粒子群算法优化目标函数寻找最佳反褶积算子,实现地震信号的盲反褶积.数值模拟和实际资料处理结果表明,与传统反褶积方法相比,本文方法同时适应于最小相位子波及混合相位子波的反褶积,能够更好地从地震数据中估计反射系数,有效拓宽地震资料的频谱,得到高分辨率的地震资料.