Diffraction-stack-based algorithms are the most popular microseismic location methods for surface microseismic data. They can accommodate microseismic data with low signal-to-noise ratio by stacking a large number of traces. However, changes in waveform polarity across the receiver line due to source mechanisms may prevent stacking methods from locating the true source. Imaging functions based on simple stacks have low resolution, producing large uncertainty in the final location result. To solve these issues, we introduce a minimum semblance weighted stacking method with polarity correction, which uses an amplitude trend least-squares fitting algorithm to correct the polarity across the receiver line. We adapt the semblance weighted stacking for better coherency measure to improve the imaging resolution. Moreover, the minimum semblance is used to further improve the resolution of location results. Application to both synthetic and real data sets demonstrates good performance of our proposed location method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.