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.     

基于虚源估计的复杂上覆地层下地震相干成像

在上覆地层比较复杂的情况下,常规地震勘探方法常常难以得到好的成像.本文研究了基于地震相干避开复杂上覆地层对地震波的影响,利用VSP数据估计地震虚源直接对目的地层进行成像的方法.在地震相干成像过程中,震源子波对分辨率有比较大的影响,尤其是存在薄层的条件下,两个非常近的反射同相轴将无法辨认.利用估计出虚源地震子波的性质,对该子波进行整形压制其旁瓣,从而提高成像的分辨率.针对典型模型的数值试验结果表明,对于复杂上覆地层情形,通过从VSP数据估计的虚源数据能够较好的对目的地层进行成像.     

分布式光纤声波传感系统记录的交通噪声的干涉处理分析

分布式光纤声波传感系统(DAS)是近年来迅速发展的高密度、低成本的地震观测设备,已经在基于面波的速度层析反演、反射成像、微地震监测等多个领域显示巨大潜力.本文基于美国加利福尼亚州Garner Valley实验中DAS记录的交通噪声数据,分析交通噪声数据特点,并利用地震干涉方法从交通噪声记录提取出近地表传播的面波信息.结...     

Point‐spread functions for interferometric imaging

Interferometric redatuming is a data‐driven method to transform seismic responses with sources at one level and receivers at a deeper level into virtual reflection data with both sources and receivers at the deeper level. Although this method has traditionally been applied by cross‐correlation, accurate redatuming through a heterogeneous overburden requires solving a multidimensional deconvolution problem. Input data can be obtained either by direct observation (for instance in a horizontal borehole), by modelling or by a novel iterative scheme that is currently being developed. The output of interferometric redatuming can be used for imaging below the redatuming level, resulting in a so‐called interferometric image. Internal multiples from above the redatuming level are eliminated during this process. In the past, we introduced point‐spread functions for interferometric redatuming by cross‐correlation. These point‐spread functions quantify distortions in the redatumed data, caused by internal multiple reflections in the overburden. In this paper, we define point‐spread functions for interferometric imaging to quantify these distortions in the image domain. These point‐spread functions are similar to conventional resolution functions for seismic migration but they contain additional information on the internal multiples in the overburden and they are partly data‐driven. We show how these point‐spread functions can be visualized to diagnose image defocusing and artefacts. Finally, we illustrate how point‐spread functions can also be defined for interferometric imaging with passive noise sources in the subsurface or with simultaneous‐source acquisition at the surface.     

地震相干偏移与数据自参照偏移的关系

地震相干偏移和数据自参照偏移是最近几年发展起来的地震成像新方法,并且已在地震勘探研究领域开始应用.该方法在VSP（垂直地震剖面）中的应用尤其值得关注,因为它部分地解决了一些在地面反射地震方法中难以解决的问题.地震相干偏移是用地震数据的互相关处理后的数据进行偏移,而数据自参照偏移则不必在偏移前对数据进行互相关处理,而是通过记录数据中的两个不同部分波场的延拓来互相参照进行偏移.二者的优点都是在偏移运算中可以不考虑原始震源位置、激发时间以及地震波初始传播路径.本文从偏移成像的理论出发分析了这两类算法,发现二者在成像原理上是一致的.本文还通过一个二维VSP多次波偏移的数值模拟实验,比较和归纳了这两类算法在实际应用中的特点.     

Feasibility of borehole ambient noise interferometry for permanent reservoir monitoring

The analysis of seismic ambient noise acquired during temporary or permanent microseismic monitoring campaigns (e.g., improved/enhanced oil recovery monitoring, surveillance of induced seismicity) is potentially well suited for time‐lapse studies based on seismic interferometry. No additional data acquisition required, ambient noise processing can be automatized to a high degree, and seismic interferometry is very sensitive to small medium changes. Thus there is an opportunity for detection and monitoring of velocity variations in a reservoir at negligible additional cost and effort. Data and results are presented from an ambient noise interferometry study applied to two wells in a producing oil field in Romania. Borehole microseismic monitoring on three component geophones was performed for four weeks, concurrent with a water‐flooding phase for improved oil recovery from a reservoir in ca. 1 km depth. Both low‐frequency (2 Hz–50 Hz) P‐ and S‐waves propagating through the vertical borehole arrays were reconstructed from ambient noise by the virtual source method. The obtained interferograms clearly indicate an origin of the ambient seismic energy from above the arrays, thus suggesting surface activities as sources. It is shown that ambient noise from time periods as short as 30 seconds is sufficient to obtain robust interferograms. Sonic log data confirm that the vertical and horizontal components comprise first arrivals of P‐wave and S‐waves, respectively. The consistency and high quality of the interferograms throughout the entire observation period further indicate that the high‐frequency part (up to 100 Hz) represents the scattered wave field. The temporal variation of apparent velocities based on first‐arrival times partly correlates with the water injection rate and occurrence of microseismic events. It is concluded that borehole ambient noise interferometry in production settings is a potentially useful method for permanent reservoir monitoring due to its high sensitivity and robustness.     

用最大似然法进行波场分解和震相识别

本文以介质中弹性波场的传播特征和多元统计分析为基础,从数学上进行严格的推导,得到了模型与资料拟合的最大似然判据,以检验地震波列中是否存在某种特殊波型的能量。利用概率滤波可得分解后的地震图,从图中可以直接得到震相到时。用此方法处理P波资料,效果较好。对于剪切波资料,有时处理结果不十分理想。这可能是由于径向分量和横向分量之间的线性相关性造成的。对于因介质各向异性而形成的分裂剪切波,用此方法得到的S波到时为快S波到时。此方法对于单台三分向记录资料的处理是十分有效的。     

Scattered ground‐roll attenuation using model‐driven interferometry

Scattered ground roll is a type of noise observed in land seismic data that can be particularly difficult to suppress. Typically, this type of noise cannot be removed using conventional velocity‐based filters. In this paper, we discuss a model‐driven form of seismic interferometry that allows suppression of scattered ground‐roll noise in land seismic data. The conventional cross‐correlate and stack interferometry approach results in scattered noise estimates between two receiver locations (i.e. as if one of the receivers had been replaced by a source). For noise suppression, this requires that each source we wish to attenuate the noise from is co‐located with a receiver. The model‐driven form differs, as the use of a simple model in place of one of the inputs for interferometry allows the scattered noise estimate to be made between a source and a receiver. This allows the method to be more flexible, as co‐location of sources and receivers is not required, and the method can be applied to data sets with a variety of different acquisition geometries. A simple plane‐wave model is used, allowing the method to remain relatively data driven, with weighting factors for the plane waves determined using a least‐squares solution. Using a number of both synthetic and real two‐dimensional (2D) and three‐dimensional (3D) land seismic data sets, we show that this model‐driven approach provides effective results, allowing suppression of scattered ground‐roll noise without having an adverse effect on the underlying signal.     

Imaging pre‐existing natural fractures using microseismic data

In hydraulic fracturing treatments, locating not only hydraulic fractures but also any pre‐existing natural fractures and faults in a subsurface reservoir is very important. Hydraulic fractures can be tracked by locating microseismic events, but to identify the locations of natural fractures, an additional technique is required. In this paper, we present a method to image pre‐existing fractures and faults near a borehole with virtual reverse vertical seismic profiling data or virtual single‐well profiling data (limited to seismic reflection data) created from microseismic monitoring using seismic interferometry. The virtual source data contain reflections from natural fractures and faults, and these features can be imaged by applying migration to the virtual source data. However, the imaging zone of fractures in the proposed method is strongly dependent on the geographic extent of the microseismic events and the location and direction of the fracture. To verify our method, we produced virtual reverse vertical seismic profiling and single‐well profiling data from synthetic microseismic data and compared them with data from real sources in the same relative position as the virtual sources. The results show that the reflection travel times from the fractures in the virtual source data agree well with travel times in the real‐source data. By applying pre‐stack depth migration to the virtual source data, images of the natural fractures were obtained with accurate locations. However, the migrated section of the single‐well profiling data with both real and virtual sources contained spurious fracture images on the opposite side of the borehole. In the case of virtual single‐well profiling data, we could produce correct migration images of fractures by adopting directional redatuming for which the occurrence region of microseismic events is divided into several subdivisions, and fractures located only on the opposite side of the borehole are imaged for each subdivision.     

地震干涉测量法近地表散射波分离技术

针对山地地震勘探数据低信噪比问题,近地表散射波分离意义显得尤为突出,地震干涉测量法为此提供了一种技术手段.本文将地震干涉测量理论和散射理论结合起来,导出了近地表散射波地震干涉测量表达式,分为互相关型和褶积型表达式,它们由实际波场和背景波场干涉测量构成.根据近地表散射波分离理论,结合陆上地震勘探实际观测系统,采用褶积和反褶积混合型地震干涉测量配置,用实际地震资料展示了近地表散射波分离技术的应用效果.经过理论分析和砾石区实际资料试验,表明地震干涉测量不仅能分离测线上散射源产生的散射波,而且能分离部分侧面散射波.该技术的优点在于它适应于起伏地形和不均匀近地表结构,并且不需要起伏地形和近地表速度信息.为了从实际资料中消除近地表散射波,本文采用多道匹配滤波自适应减法,在砾石区见到较好效果.     

Seismic interferometry and estimation of the Green's function using Gaussian beams

This study investigates seismic interferometry in which the Green's function is estimated between two receivers by cross-correlation and integration over sources.For smoothly varying source strengths,the dominant contributions of the correlation integral come from the stationary phase directions in the forward and backward directions from the alignment of the two receivers.Gaussian beams can be used to evaluate the correlation integral and concentrate the amplitudes in a vicinity of the stationary phase regions instead of completely relying on phase interference.Several numerical examples are shown to illustrate how this process works.The use of Gaussian beams for the evaluation of the correlation integral results in stable estimates,and also provides physical insight into the estimation of the Green's function based on seismic interferometry.     

The design of visco‐acoustic weighted L1‐error frequency–space wavefield extrapolators

Seismic imaging is an important step for imaging the subsurface structures of the Earth. One of the attractive domains for seismic imaging is explicit frequency–space (f – x) prestack depth migration. So far, this domain focused on migrating seismic data in acoustic media, but very little work assumed visco‐acoustic media. In reality, seismic exploration data amplitudes suffer from attenuation. To tackle the problem of attenuation, new operators are required, which compensates for it. We propose the weighted L ₁ ‐error minimisation technique to design visco‐acoustic f – x wavefield extrapolators. The L ₁ ‐error wavenumber responses provide superior extrapolator designs as compared with the previously designed equiripple L ₄ ‐norm and L_∞‐norm extrapolation wavenumber responses. To verify the new compensating designs, prestack depth migration is performed on the challenging Marmousi model dataset. A reference migrated section is obtained using non‐compensating f – x extrapolators on an acoustic dataset. Then, both compensating and non‐compensating extrapolators are applied to a visco‐acoustic dataset, and both migrated sections are then compared. The final images show that the proposed weighted L ₁ ‐error method enhances the resolution and results in practically stable images.     

高速列车移动震源地震记录

地球上的环境噪声作为被动震源已被用于地球内部结构研究,在地球科学与工程方面取得了良好的应用效果.随着人类活动频繁加剧,由移动交通工具产生的交通噪声,已经成为一种特别需要关注的环境噪声被动震源.高速运行列车产生的交通噪声,相比其他交通噪声能量强,连续稳定,并且具有可重复性,特别是近十几年来,中国高速铁路发展迅速,形成了覆盖中国大陆的高速铁路网络,为大范围、长期观测高速列车产生的交通噪声并研究其应用提供了基础.我们利用地震勘探检波器,分别采集高速列车运行产生的地震记录以及相同位置无高速列车运行的环境噪声,对地震记录信号以及环境噪声进行了频谱分析以及地震波干涉等处理.频谱分析结果显示,高速列车运行产生的地震信号能量约是环境噪声能量的10³倍,而地震信号频率成分与高速列车运行速度相关.我们分别对高速列车运行产生的地震信号与环境噪声进行了地震波干涉处理,重建出地震初至波以及续至波信息,经过初步分析,重建的初至波地震波场揭示了地表地震波传播特征,而续至波波场十分复杂.高速列车作为一种移动被动震源产生的地震记录具有应用潜力.     

基于逆虚折射干涉法有效提取近地表弱地震信号

在地震勘探中,地形起伏和近地表速度的剧烈变化会导致地震波旅行时的扰动,通常会通过折射波信息来估算和消除这些扰动.本文在虚折射的基础上提出了逆虚折射干涉法,通过虚折射波场和原始折射波场的互相关,并对所有位于固定相位点上的检波点进行叠加,重构出逆虚折射波场.通过逆虚折射与超级虚折射的叠加,保证了不同偏移距下折射波振幅恢复的一致性,显著提高折射波的信噪比,有效提取弱信号.同时,本文采用反褶积干涉法来压制由于互相关和褶积产生的子波旁瓣的影响,弥补低频和高频能量的损失,改善恢复的折射波场的稳定性和分辨率.该新方法不需要知道近地表复杂速度模型的信息,可以将虚折射的勘探孔径恢复到原始地震记录的最大孔径.合成资料和实际资料的计算结果表明,基于反褶积的逆虚折射干涉法能够从低信噪比的资料中,有效恢复出折射波信息.     

Body-wave passive seismic interferometry revisited: mining exploration using the body waves of local microearthquakes

As the global need for mineral resources is constantly rising and the exploitable concentrations of these resources tend to become increasingly complex to explore and exploit, the mining industry is in a constant quest for innovative and cost-effective exploration solutions. In this context, and in the framework of the Smart Exploration action, an integrated passive seismic survey was launched in the Gerolekas bauxite mining site in Central Greece. A passive seismic network, consisting of 129 three-component short-period stations was installed and operated continuously for 4 months. The acquired data permitted detection of approximately 1000 microearthquakes of very small magnitude (duration magnitude ranging between –1.5 and 2.0), located within or at a very close distance from the study area. We use this microseismicity as input for the application of passive seismic interferometry for reflection retrieval, using the body waves (P- and S-wave coda) of the located microearthquakes. We retrieve by autocorrelation zero-offset virtual reflection responses, per component, below each of the recording stations. We process the acquired results using reflection processing techniques to obtain zero-offset time and depth sections, both for P- and for S-waves. In the context of the present work, we evaluate one of the acquired depth sections, using an existing seismic line passing through the Gerolekas passive seismic network, and we perform forward modelling to assess the quality and value of the acquired results. We confirm that passive seismic reflected-wave interferometry could constitute a cost-effective and environmentally friendly innovative exploration alternative, especially in cases of difficult exploration settings.     

Nonparametric estimation of wave dispersion in high‐rise buildings by seismic interferometry

Interferometric identification and health monitoring of high‐rise buildings has been gaining increasing interest in recent years. The wave dispersion in the structure has been largely ignored in these efforts but needs to be considered to further develop these methods. In this paper, (i) the goodness of estimation of vertical wave velocity in buildings, as function of frequency, by two nonparametric interferometric techniques is examined, using realistic fixed‐base Timoshenko beam benchmark models. Such models are convenient because the variation of phase and group velocities with frequency can be derived theoretically. The models are those of the NS and EW responses of Millikan Library. One of the techniques, deconvolution interferometry, estimates the phase velocity on a frequency band from phase difference between motions at two locations in the structure, while the other one estimates it approximately at the resonant frequencies based on standing wave patterns. The paper also (ii) examines the modeling error in wave velocity profiles identified by fitting layered shear beam in broader band impulse response functions of buildings with significant bending flexibility. This error may affect inferences on the spatial distribution of damage from detected changes in such velocity profiles. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

中国地震台网、全球地震台网地震目录数据库和震相数据库

地震目录和震相数据在地震学研究中具有重要意义，本文介绍了中国地震台网、全球地震台网地震目录数据库和震相数据库的内容和查询使用方法。     

Seismic interferometry,intrinsic losses and Q‐estimation*

Seismic interferometry is the process of generating new seismic traces from the cross‐correlation, convolution or deconvolution of existing traces. One of the starting assumptions for deriving the representations for seismic interferometry by cross‐correlation is that there is no intrinsic loss in the medium where the recordings are performed. In practice, this condition is not always met. Here, we investigate the effect of intrinsic losses in the medium on the results retrieved from seismic interferometry by cross‐correlation. First, we show results from a laboratory experiment in a homogeneous sand chamber with strong losses. Then, using numerical modelling results, we show that in the case of a lossy medium ghost reflections will appear in the cross‐correlation result when internal multiple scattering occurs. We also show that if a loss compensation is applied to the traces to be correlated, these ghosts in the retrieved result can be weakened, can disappear, or can reverse their polarity. This compensation process can be used to estimate the quality factor in the medium.     

Sub‐sample time shift and horizontal displacement measurements using phase‐correlation method in time‐lapse seismic

Hydrocarbon production and fluid injection affect the level of subsurface stress and physical properties of the subsurface, and can cause reservoir‐related issues, such as compaction and subsidence. Monitoring of oil and gas reservoirs is therefore crucial. Time‐lapse seismic is used to monitor reservoirs and provide evidence of saturation and pressure changes within the reservoir. However, relative to background velocities and reflector depths, the time‐lapse changes in velocity and geomechanical properties are typically small between consecutive surveys. These changes can be measured by using apparent displacement between migrated images obtained from recorded data of multiple time‐lapse surveys. Apparent displacement measurements by using the classical cross‐correlation method are poorly resolved. Here, we propose the use of a phase‐correlation method, which has been developed in satellite imaging for sub‐pixel registration of the images, to overcome the limitations of cross‐correlation. Phase correlation provides both vertical and horizontal displacements with a much better resolution. After testing the method on synthetic data, we apply it to a real dataset from the Norne oil field and show that the phase‐correlation method can indeed provide better resolution.     

Comparative research and its significance of deformation measurements by technologies of laser real-time holographic interferometry and radar differential interferometry

The principles and applications of laser real-time holographic interferometry （LRTHI） and radar differential interferometry （RDI） technologies are described in this paper, respectively. By using LRTHI, we can observe the deformation of samples under pressure in the lab and study the anomaly characteristics relating to different strain fields in different fracture-developing areas; while by using RDI, we can observe the landform and surface deformation. The results of deformation observed before and after the Ms=7.9 Mani earthquake （Tibet） and Ms=6.2 Shangyi-Zhangbei earthquake in China are obtained. It is pointed out that LRTHI and RDi are similar, which study the characteristics of anomalous deformation field by fringe variations for both of them. Therefore, the observation of deformation field in the seismogenic process, especially in the period impending an earthquake by RDI, and the comparative study in the lab by LRTHI are of great significance.