Method of imaging the earth's subsurface during marine seismic data acquisition

• US 20110235464A1
• Filed: 03/24/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PGS Geophysical As (PGS ASA)
• Original Assignee: PGS Geophysical As (PGS ASA)
• Inventors: Bishop, Stephen David, Brittan, John, Brandsberg-Dahl, Sverre
• Application Number:
  US12/661,785
• Publication Number:
  US 20110235464A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 367/72
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 1/368 Inverse filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 2210/32 Noise reduction
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 2210/56 De-ghosting; Reverberation compensation

Abstract

Marine seismic data are acquired, using a seismic vessel. The acquired marine seismic data are transferred in near-real time to a programmable computer. The programmable computer is used to perform the following. An acoustic 3-D full-waveform inversion is applied to the transferred marine seismic data, generating a high-resolution 3-D velocity field in near-real time. The velocity field is used to apply migration to the transferred marine seismic data, generating an image of the earth'"'"'s subsurface in near-real time.

Claims

1. A method for constructing an image of earth'"'"'s subsurface from marine seismic data in near-real time, comprising:

acquiring marine seismic data, using a seismic vessel;

transferring the acquired marine seismic data in near-real time to a programmable computer; and

using the programmable computer to perform the following;

applying an acoustic 3-D full-waveform inversion to the transferred marine seismic data, generating a high-resolution 3-D velocity field in near-real time; and

using the velocity field to apply migration to the transferred marine seismic data, generating an image of the earth'"'"'s subsurface in near-real time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the programmable computer is onboard the seismic vessel.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the transferring the acquired marine seismic data further comprises:

using the programmable computer to perform the following;

processing the transferred data to remove noise and multiples.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the programmable computer is onshore.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the acquiring marine seismic data further comprises:

using a programmable computer onboard the seismic vessel to perform the following;

filtering the acquired marine seismic data with a temporal anti-alias filter;

further filtering the filtered data to a lower sample rate; and

compressing the filtered data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the transferring the acquired marine seismic data further comprises:

using the programmable computer onshore to perform the following;

decompressing the transferred data; and

processing the decompressed data to remove noise and multiples.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the temporal anti-alias filter is designed to optimize signal-to-noise ratio in a lower frequency portion of the marine seismic data.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the temporal anti-alias filter is designed to prevent leakage of noise in the sample rate filtering.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein the compressing employs a loss-less wavelet based technique.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

using the velocity field in a seismic inversion process to estimate rock properties of the earth'"'"'s subsurface.