U.S. patents available from 1976 to present.
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High fidelity vibratory source seismic method with source separation

Patent 5721710 Issued on February 24, 1998. Estimated Expiration Date: Icon_subject September 20, 2016. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.

Patent References

3332511

3885225

Method of three dimensional seismic prospecting
Patent #: 4159463
Issued on: 06/26/1979
Inventor: Silverman

Methods for seismic exploration
Patent #: 4545039
Issued on: 10/01/1985
Inventor: Savit

Minimum phase bandpass filtering of seismic signals
Patent #: 4608673
Issued on: 08/26/1986
Inventor: Lazear

Method and apparatus for correcting distorted seismic data
Patent #: 4646274
Issued on: 02/24/1987
Inventor: Martinez

Method of suppressing vibration seismic signal correlation noise
Patent #: 4707812
Issued on: 11/17/1987
Inventor: Martinez

Simultaneous performance of multiple seismic vibratory surveys
Patent #: 4715020
Issued on: 12/22/1987
Inventor: Landrum, Jr.

Seismic data acquisition technique having superposed signals
Patent #: 4823326
Issued on: 04/18/1989
Inventor: Ward

Method of source coding and harmonic cancellation for vibrational geophysical survey sources
Patent #: 4982374
Issued on: 01/01/1991
Inventor: Edington, et al.

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Inventors

Assignee

Application

No. 717176 filed on 09/20/1996

US Classes:

367/41, Transmitted correlation367/38, Signal analysis and/or correction367/43, Filters702/14, Seismology702/17, Filtering or noise reduction/removal702/32Specific signal data processing

Examiners

Primary: Lobo, Ian J.

Attorney, Agent or Firm

International Class

G01V 001/28

Abstract

A method of separating the effects of the earth response on vibratory energy from individual ones of multiple vibrators to geophones, in generating a seismic survey, is disclosed. According to the disclosed method, measurements of the actual vibrations generated at the source are made, in addition to the geophone measurements of the refracted and reflected vibrations, both over a number of frequency sweeps. The source and geophone vibrations are first transformed into frequency domain representations, by way of Discrete Fourier Transforms. An inverse matrix of the recorded frequency-domain source vibrations is then generated for each frequency. When the number of sweeps equals the number of vibrators, the inverse matrix is merely the multiplicative inverse of the source measurements; if the number of sweeps exceeds the number of vibrators, the inverse matrix is the generalized inverse of the original matrix. The inverse matrix for the frequency is applied to the recorded geophone vibrations at that frequency, to derive the transfer function, corresponding to the earth response, for each vibrator-geophone path in the survey. A weighting factor may be used to discount the effects of poorly behaved sweeps, and may be based on the ratio of the maximum and minimum eigenvalues for the inverse matrix. Using these derived transfer functions, an earth reflectivity function may be derived for each vibrator-geophone path by applying a minimum phase filter to the separated vibrator-geophone transfer function over frequency; this filter removes the effects of a ##EQU1## term, and yields the earth reflectivity function for the path.

Other References

  • Robinson, "Predictive Decomposition of Seismic Traces", Geophysics, vol. XXII, No. 4 (Oct., 1957), pp. 767-778
  • Peacock and Treitel, "Predictive Deconvolution: Theory and Practice", Geophysics, vol. XXXIV, No. 2 (Apr., 1969), pp. 155-169
  • Servodio and Bertelli, "Dual Source VIBROSEIS Acquisition for 2D Survey by Using Conventional and E-Code Sweeps", presented at the 56th Meeting and Exposition of the European Association of Exploration Geophysicists, (Jun., 1994
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