We have developed a pragmatic new processing strategy to enhance seismic information obtained from long-offset multichannel seismic data. The conventional processing approach, which treats data on a sample-by-sample basis, is applied at a coarser scale on groups of samples. Using this approach, a reflected event and its vicinity remain unstretched during the normal moveout correction. Isomoveout curves ͑lines of equal moveout͒ in the time-velocity panel are employed to apply a constant moveout correction to selected individual events, leading to a nonstretch stack. A zigzag stacking-velocity function is introduced as a combination of segments of appropriate isomoveout curves. By employing a zigzag velocity function, stretching of key events is avoided and thus information at far offset is preserved in the stack. The method is also computationally cost-effective. However, the zigzag stacking-velocity field must be consistent with target horizons. This method of horizon-consistent nonstretch moveout has been applied to a wide-angle data set from the North Atlantic margin, providing improved images of the basement interface, which was previously poorly imaged.
In marine acquisition, reflections of sound energy from the water–air interface result in ghosts in the seismic data, both in the source side and the receiver side. Ghosts limit the bandwidth of the useful signal and blur the final image. The process to separate the ghost and primary signals, called the deghosting process, can fill the ghost notch, broaden the frequency band, and help achieve high‐resolution images. Low‐signal‐to‐noise ratio near the notch frequencies and 3D effects are two challenges that the deghosting process has to face. In this paper, starting from an introduction to the deghosting process, we present and compare two strategies to solve the latter. The first is an adaptive mechanism that adjusts the deghosting operator to compensate for 3D effects or errors in source/receiver depth measurement. This method does not include explicitly the crossline slowness component and is not affected by the sparse sampling in the same direction. The second method is an inversion‐type approach that does include the crossline slowness component in the algorithm and handles the 3D effects explicitly. Both synthetic and field data examples in wide azimuth acquisition settings are shown to compare the two strategies. Both methods provide satisfactory results.
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