OPTIMIZED RECEIVER ARRAY SIMULATION BASED UPON RESOLUTION CONSTRAINTS¹

The use of cables with a large number of closely spaced receivers has become increasingly common in marine seismic acquisition; this gives geophysicists the opportunity to improve data quality in processing centres. In particular, arrays need not be fixed in the field, but instead can be flexibly simulated in the computer.

The paper defines a strategy to optimize the application of receiver‐array simulation, based on the requirement that signal resolution should not be compromised. The approach consists in the design of k‐domain filters through the use of Chebyshev polynomials that define the spatial response of the desired array, with array length that varies with time according to spatial and vertical resolution constraints set by the interpreter.

An example, taken from a marine 240‐channel seismic line, ties the underlying ideas to practical application and shows that appropriate array processes can contribute to improving the quality of seismic data, especially in areas with complex geology and strong coherent noise.