Presented are processed seismic data acquired from a dual sensor marine cable that records with both hydrophones and motion sensors. An overview of the theory for this acquisition concept is presented with an outline of the steps used that utilize the benefit of acquiring two separate wavefield components (Fokkema and van den Berg, 1993). 2D field test data was acquired concurrently with a survey that used standard (hydrophone only) cables. The data acquired using the dual sensor cable is shown to be correctly deghosted and has improved frequency bandwidth compared with the data acquired using standard cables.
We consider the problem of estimating subsurface quantities such as velocity or reflectivity from seismic measurements. Because of a limited aperture and band‐limited signals, the output from a seismic prestack reconstruction method is a distorted or blurred image. This distortion can be computed using the concept of resolution function, which is a quantity readily accessible in the Fourier space of the model. The key parameter is the scattering wavenumber, which at a particular image point is defined by the incident and scattered ray directions in a given background model. Any location in any background model can be considered. In general, the resolution function will depend on the following four quantities: the background velocity model, the frequency bandwidth, the wavefield type and the acquisition geometry.
We first establish the resolution function for a general scattering model assuming local reaction. We then adapt this result for two well‐known scattering models: Born and Kirchhoff. For each of these approximations the corresponding resolution function is derived and discussed. Finally, by employing a simple synthetic data example we demonstrate the ability of the resolution function to predict the image distortions.
A dual-sensor towed streamer records the pressure and vertical component of particle motion associated with the incident wavefield that may be used to separate the wavefield into its upand downgoing parts. This procedure requires information about the water properties (wave-propagation velocity and density) and is robust in the presence of errors in the estimation of these quantities of the magnitude likely to be encountered. In practice, the particle motion data recorded by current towed marine streamers encounter very strong mechanical noise such that, for the lowest frequencies, the wavefield separation must be approximated by deconvolving the ghost function from the pressure data. This procedure requires information about the streamer depth and is robust to small depth errors over the frequency range for which it is required for dual-sensor streamer processing, but it is much more sensitive if applied over the bandwidth necessary to deghost pressure data acquired at a conventional streamer depth. The signal-to-noise ratio can be further enhanced by recombining the up-and downgoing pressure fields at the sea surface, which has the effect of applying a ghostlike filter to noise that is recorded by only one of the two sensors. In practical marine acquisition scenarios, spatial sampling is often insufficient to yield an accurate result, especially in the crossline direction. If each streamer is processed independently assuming that the wavefield propagation is purely inline, significant errors can be introduced. For arrivals with high emergent angles, errors may also be introduced even if the wavefield propagation actually is purely inline due to incorrect treatment of spatially aliased energy. However, these effects are almost entirely confined to very shallow events. They can be mitigated by using independently derived information about the crossline propagation angle and, for data comprising predominantly forward scattered energy, appropriate application of linear moveout.
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