Making Waves in the Desert - A Case Study in Sparse Acquisition

al heritage issues these methods are not feasible in the deserts of Australia. In general wide line intervals are preferred and it is highly desirable to avoid straight lines. Even though minimal or no line clearance is performed, the lines are still highly visible on satellite images and on the ground due to compaction by the passage of vehicles. Wide line intervals lead to low fold data but can provide a low environmental impact and still give a reasonable image of the target. However, they often suffer from strong amplitude artefacts commonly known as acquisition footprint. To reduce these artifacts, we deployed sources in a smooth “wavy” sinusoidal pattern and where required, followed natural features in the terrain. This methodology results in both acquisition with a minimal visual impact and provides significant benefits in reducing the acquisition footprint, providing high quality seismic where channel features are clearly visible on the migrated volumes.