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5 Handouts - Ch1 Introduction PDF
5 Handouts - Ch1 Introduction PDF
Chapter 1
Introduction
There are three primary stages in processing seismic data. In their usual order of
application, they are:
Deconvolution: increases the vertical (time) resolution.
Stacking: increases the S/N ratio.
Migration: increases the horizontal resolution.
Secondary processes are implemented at certain stages to condition the data and
improve the performance of these three processes.
Figure 1-1 shows a conventional seismic data processing flow (Yilmaz, 2001).
Setup of field geometry: The geometry of the field is written into the data (trace
headers) in order to associate each trace with its respective shot, offset, channel,
and CMP.
Application of field statics: In land surveys, elevation statics are applied to bring
the traveltimes to a common datum level.
2. Deconvolution is performed along the time axis to increase vertical resolution by
compressing the basic seismic wavelet to approximately a spike and suppressing
reverberating wave trains.
3. CMP sorting consists of transforming the data from shot-receiver (shot gather) to
midpoint-offset (CMP gather) coordinates using the field geometry information.
3. Velocity analysis is performed on selected CMP gathers to estimate the stacking
velocities of each reflection.
4. Residual statics correction is usually needed for most land data. It corrects for
variations in the lateral velocity and thickness of the weathering layer.
5. NMO correction and stacking: The stacking velocities are used to remove the effect
of offset from the reflections in each CMP gather (NMO correction). The NMOcorrected traces in each CMP gather are summed over the offset (stacked) to produce
a single trace.
6. Poststack processing includes demultipling, time-variant band-pass filtering, gain
application, dip filtering, and other processes.
7. Migration: dipping events are moved to their true subsurface positions and
diffractions are collapsed by migrating the stacked section using the medium velocity.
The aim of seismic migration is to increase the horizontal resolution.