SEISMIC REFLECTION PROCESSING

Sheriff & Geldart, Section 9.13 conventional processing flowchart examples (common-midpoint processing in boxes)

Yilmaz 2001

Sheriff & Geldart 1995

Reynolds 1997

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-1

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

Common-Midpoint Processing
Sheriff & Geldart, Sections 9.6, 9.7, 9.10 sort to common-midpoint (CMP) gathers for irregular or 3D geometry (most cases), common-midpoint bins must be defined care must be taken to define bins in such a way that a good range of offsets lies in each bin for 3D data, a good range of azimuths is also desired midpoint location defined as the centroid (average) of the locations of the traces in the bin since the file to be sorted is huge, this step is intensive for computer input/output (read/write) and memory (RAM)

fk filter the physical distance between traces in the CMP gather is usually greater than in the shot (or receiver) gather, thus aliasing is more of a concern => prefer to fk filter before the CMP sort

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-2

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

Caspian data set: sorted to common-midpoint gathers

Yilmaz 2001

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-3

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

velocity analysis (see class notes sections 1.1 and 2.2 on normal moveout - NMO) for a 1D velocity structure, the moveout (t,x curve) of a reflector is
N t0

x2 1 1 2 2 2 t = t 0 + 2 + O( x 4 ) v rms = vi 2 t i = v 2 (t )dt v rms t 0 i=1 t0 0 where x is source-receiver offset t0 is the zero-offset time of the reflector vi is the velocity of the i'th layer ti is the two-way travel time of the i'th layer v(t) is 1D velocity as a function of vertical two-way travel time O(x4) indicates terms involving x to the 4th and higher order terms
for near-normal incidence (for offset << depth), this is a hyperbolic moveout for several layers with arbitrary dips

x2 t = t 0 + 2 + O( x 4 ) v nmo where vnmo is a complex function of vi , i , and i

2 2

for near-normal incidence (for offset << depth), this is a hyperbolic moveout
Yilmaz 2001

in practice, velocity analysis is used to find the best-fitting hyperbola for each reflection event the result is stacking velocity as a function of two-way normal-incidence travel time vstk(t) for short offset and shallow dip, v stk v rms
Hole: GEOS 4174 4.2-4 Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

velocity analysis constant-velocity CMP panels: NMO-correct a CMP gather at a set of velocities pick the velocity that best flattens each reflector => stacking velocity as a function of time

Reynolds 1997

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-5

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

velocity analysis constant-velocity stack panels: NMO-correct many CMP gathers at a set of velocities and stack to produce a section pick the velocity that gives the best image of each reflector => stacking velocity vs. time

Yilmaz 2001

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-6

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

velocity analysis velocity spectrum: NMO-correct a CMP gather and stack to produce a stacked trace at a set of velocities this is a direct plot of stacking velocity vs. time => pick energy peaks alternatively, compute semblance along hyperbola at different stacking velocities

A 1 semblance = # traces A

traces timewindow 2

traces timewindow

where the time window is between 0.5 and 1.0 times the dominant period interval velocity: layer (rock) velocity as a function of time v(t) compute from RMS velocity using the Dix formula
2 2 vRMS t v 2 2 RMS1t1 vinterval = t2 t1

where 2 and 1 indicate the bottom and top of the layer obtain v(t) at every Nth CMP gather, and interpolate to get v(x,t)

NMO correction

mute zero the far offsets at early time to delete NMO-stretch (including refractions)
Hole: GEOS 4174 4.2-7 Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing

Caspian data set: velocity spectra for selected CMP gathers

Yilmaz 2001

horizontal axis is velocity, vertical is time, color is semblance black lines are picked stacking velocity note multiples at lower velocity

Hole: GEOS 4174

4.2-8

Reflection Data Processing: Common-Midpoint Processing