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Chapter 6

Static corrections

 The objective of static corrections is to account for near-surface effects.

 These corrections include:

o Elevation static correction, which accounts for variable elevations of the

sources and receivers.

o Residual static correction, which accounts for lateral variations in the velocity

and thickness of the weathering layer.

 The weathering layer is the shallowest low-velocity layer. It is composed of

unconsolidated and loosely consolidated sediments.

 Common weathering layers in arid areas include: sand dunes, sabkhas, gravel plains,

karsts, and valley fills.

 The weathering layer velocity is usually much less than those of the underlying sub-

weathering layer (bedrock) and deeper layers.

 Therefore, the weathering layer produces large contribution to the overall traveltime

of rays.

 Figure 6.1 shows the effect of noise versus statics on T-X curves.
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Elevation (field) static correction

 It involves the computation and removal of the effect of different source and receiver
elevations.

 This involves bringing the sources and receivers to a common datum, preferably
below the elevation of the lowest source or receiver.

 For this, we need a replacement velocity (Vr) for the material between the elevation
of the datum and that of the source or receiver.

 The replacement velocity is either assumed from prior knowledge of the area or can
be estimated from uphole times or direct arrivals.

 The elevation static correction (TD) is given by:

( ES  Z S  ED )  ( ER  Z R  ED )
TD  , (1)
Vr

where, ES: ground elevation at shot location (from mean sea level),

ZS: depth of shot (= 0 for a surface source),

ER: ground elevation at receiver location (from mean sea level),

ZR: depth of receiver (= 0 for a surface geophone), and

ED: datum elevation (from mean sea level).

 TD is always subtracted from the two-way traveltime of the trace belonging to that
particular source-receiver pair.

 Figure 6.2 shows elevation profiles in land and marine surveys.

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Residual static correction

 After elevation static correction, it is important to correct for the effect of variable
thickness and lateral velocity variation of the weathering layer.

 Figure 6.3 shows the difference between elevation and residual static corrections.

 The main methods used to correct for these effects are:

 Uphole surveys.

 Refraction statics.

 Surface-consistent statics.

Uphole surveys

 A fairly shallow hole (100-200 m) that penetrates the weathering layer and the upper
part of the sub-weathering layer is drilled for this purpose.

 Several geophones are placed at various (known) depths in the hole. The geophone
locations must span the weathering and sub-weathering layers.

 A shot is fired at the surface near the hole and the direct traveltimes to the geophones
are recorded.

 A plot of the direct traveltimes versus the geophone depths can be used to compute
the velocities of the weathering and sub-weathering layers as well as the thickness of

the weathering layer at the uphole location.

 Figure 6.4 shows a typical uphole geometry.

 Figure 6.5 shows an example of a real uphole survey and its analysis.
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 This method attempts to construct a model of the weathering layer by estimating the
velocity and thickness of the weathering layer at several locations and interpolating

between these locations.

 This method has the advantage of providing highly accurate near-surface velocities
and thicknesses. However, it is very costly if high lateral resolution is required.

 Therefore, this method is usually good in estimating long-wavelength statics.

 Wavelength of statics refers to the width of the lateral (velocity or thickness) change
in the weathering layer relative to the spread length (maximum offset).

Refraction statics

 Most versions of this method are effective in estimating short-wavelength statics.

 This method is used to construct a model of the weathering layer (WL) by estimating
the velocity and thickness of the WL.

 These methods require picking first breaks, which is time consuming and inaccurate.

 The following are standard methods used for refraction statics calculation:
1. Delay-time Method:

 It uses the slopes of the direct and head waves as well as the head wave’s

intercept time of many shot records along the profile to estimate the WL

velocity and thickness under each receiver.

 This method requires reversed raypaths, which might not be available.

 Figure 6.6 gives more details on the delay-time method.

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2. Best-fit Methods:

 Least-squares analysis is used to find the best-fit WL velocity-thickness model

to the first arrivals (i.e., direct and head waves).

 Tomographic methods are often employed to invert the observed first arrivals

for the best-fit WL velocity-thickness model.

Surface-consistent residual static correction method

 This method is especially effective in estimating short-wavelength statics.

 The surface-consistent assumption considers static shifts as time delays that depend
only on the source and receiver locations on the surface, not on raypaths in the

subsurface.

 This assumption is valid only if all raypaths are vertical in the near surface, regardless
of source-receiver offset and refractor depth (Figure 6.7).

 The surface-consistent assumption is generally good because the WL usually has a

low velocity and refraction towards the normal at its base tends to make raypaths

vertical. What other conditions would make this assumption better?

 The total residual static time shift on any trace can be expressed as:

Tijk  Ri  S j  Gk  M k X ij2 , (2)

where:

Ri: is the residual static time shift associated with the ith receiver position (i = 1, …, I,

where I is the number of receivers used in the survey),

Sj: is the residual static time shift associated with the jth source position (j = 1, …, J,
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where J is the number of sources used in the survey),

Gk: is the difference in two-way traveltime (due to structure) at a reference CMP and

the traveltime at the kth CMP (k = 1, …, K, where K is number of CMPs in the

survey), and

M k : is the residual NMO associated with the trace generated by the jth source

and recorded by the ith receiver and it accounts for possible imperfect NMO

correction due to using imperfect NMO velocities for the kth CMP. Why is Mk

multiplied by Xij2? Derive an approximate formula for Mk.

 Generally, we have more equations than unknowns for typical seismic surveys (Is this
true for your line?). This is a typical least-squares problem.

 Our objective is to find those Ri, Sj, Gk, and Mk that will minimize the following error-
energy between observed and calculated time shifts using model parameters in

equation (2):

I J K
E  [( Ri  S j  Gk  M k X ij2 )  Tijk ]2 . (3)
i 1 j 1 k 1
calculated Tijk observed Tijk

Residual static correction in practice

 Residual static correction, in practice, involves the following three phases:

(1) Picking (calculating) the observed time shifts Tijk.

(2) Decomposition (distribution) of Tijk into receiver, source, structural, and

imperfect-NMO terms.
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(3) Application of only source and receiver terms to the traces of pre-NMO-corrected

CMP gathers.

(1) Picking:

 It means estimating the observed time shifts Tijk from the data.

 The most widely used method is the pilot trace method, which consists of the

following steps:

(1) A CMP with good S/N ratio is gained and NMO-corrected using a preliminary

velocity function.

(2) The CMP gather is stacked to produce the first pilot trace.

(3) Each individual trace in this CMP gather is crosscorrelated with the first pilot

trace.

(4) Time shifts Tijk' , which correspond to maximum crosscorrelations, are picked.

(5) Shift each original trace by its corresponding time shift Tijk' .

(6) A second pilot trace is constructed by stacking the once-shifted traces in the

gather.

(7) The second pilot trace is, in turn, crosscorrelated with the once-shifted traces

in the gather and new time shifts Tijk'' are computed. Naturally, Tijk'' < Tijk' .

(8) Shift each once shifted-trace by its corresponding new time shift Tijk'' .

(9) The total time shift is given as: Tijk = Tijk' + Tijk'' .

(10) A third pilot trace is constructed again by stacking the twice-shifted traces.
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(11) The third pilot trace is crosscorrelated with the third pilot trace of the next

CMP gather to calculate the structural term Gk.

(12) The process is performed this way on all CMP gathers moving to left and/or

right from the starting (reference) CMP gather.

(13) The picked total time shifts (Tijk) are passed to the next phase

(decomposition).

 The following parameters are important when picking the time shifts in practice:

(a) Maximum allowable shift:

 It is the maximum shift allowed for crosscorrelations.

 It should be greater than all possible combined shot and receiver shifts at

any given location along the profile.

 It should be less than the dominant period of the data in poor S/N ratio

data (why?).

 A value between 30 and 40 ms is reasonable.

(b) Correlation window:

 It is taken around a prominent primary reflection.

 It should be chosen in an interval with the highest possible S/N ratio.

 It should be as large as possible and outside the mute zone whenever

possible.

(c) Other considerations:

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 The residual-NMO term (Mk) should not be large within the correlation

window. Therefore, you should have done your best effort with the NMO

correction.

 In areas of significantly poor S/N ratio, a second pass of residual static

correction must be done.

 A second residual static correction pass means:

1. Do velocity analysis.

2. Do residual static correction.

3. Do velocity analysis again.

4. Do residual static correction again.

(2) Decomposition:

 It involves least-squares decomposition of the picked time shifts (Tijk) found in

phase (1) into source, receiver, structural, and residual-NMO terms using equation

(3).

 The procedure most widely used for solving the resulting system of linear

equations is the Gauss-Seidel iterative procedure.

(3) Application: The individual static shifts associated with each source and receiver

location only are applied to the pre-NMO-corrected gather traces.

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Appendix A

Elevation Statics

ES

Ground surface
ZS
ER

ZR
Vr
ES - ZS - ED
ER – ZR - ED
ED

( ES  Z S  E D )  ( E R  Z R  E D )
TD 
Vr
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