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Appendix A
Sampling and aliasing
In seismic survey design, the sampling of the wave-
field to be recorded plays an important role. Therefore,
in this appendix, some basics of sampling theory are
highlighted. More on this subject can be found at online
general-information sites and in various geophysical
­ the maximum frequency of the wavefield being recorded.
books (e.g., Vermeer, 1990; Sheriff and Geldart, 1995).
If a continuous function of time W(t) is sampled with a
constant sampling interval Dt, Dt should be selected such
that W(t) can be reconstructed faithfully from the recorded
samples [for times where W(t) is defined]. In Section 1.2,
this is called proper sampling. Proper sampling of a time
function with maximum frequency fmax requires that the
sampling frequency be at least equal to 2 fmax, i.e., there
should be at least two samples per smallest time period
Tmin = 1/fmax. Therefore, the Shannon sampling theorem
(also called the Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem) can
be formulated as
1
Dt ≤ . (A.1)
2 fmax
The maximum frequency that is not aliased (in the time
domain) is called the Nyquist frequency fN, defined as
1 are similar to those of the signal and it is difficult to sepa-
fN ≡ . (A.2)
2Dt
A function that is sampled with too large an interval is
said to be aliased. Figure A.1 shows two continuous func-
tions sampled at 10 ms. In this case, fN = 50 Hz; therefore,
the sampled red 90-Hz function is aliased, and its alias is
the blue 10-Hz function. If the given samples are input to
a reconstruction algorithm, the blue 10-Hz function nor-
mally will be produced.
Sampling of a function W(x) in space is entirely analo-
gous to sampling a time function — period T to be replaced
by wavelength l, and frequency f replaced by wavenum-
ber k. So the sampling rule for spatial sampling is
1 illustrated in Figure A.3. This figure shows a 20-Hz plane
Dx ≤ , (A.3)
2 kmax
with a corresponding Nyquist wavenumber kN.
293
The function to be sampled in 3D surface seismic
data acquisition is 5D: W(t, xs, ys, xr, yr), as defined in
Section 1.2. Usually, the time coordinate of this func-
tion is oversampled with an fN that is much larger than
The problem is the sampling of the four spatial coordi-
nates, as discussed extensively in the main text. In 3D
symmetric sampling (Section 2.4), at least two of the four
spatial coordinates are sampled properly, producing well-
sampled 3D subsets.
After sampling a function with sampling frequency fs
(= 1/Dt) or ks (= 1/Dx), the spectrum of the original func-
tion is reproduced with periodicity 1/fs or 1/ks. If the maxi­
mum wavenumber kmax of the original data is larger than
kN, the sampled data are aliased and the repeated spectra
will overlap each other. This produces the so-called wrap-
around effect, illustrated in Figure A.2. In Figure A.2b,
the area between the two heavy vertical lines represents
the aliased f-k spectrum. The noise (green oval) in the
­figure is truncated at k = kN and seems to wrap around to
k = –kN. This aliased noise is wrapped around another time
for the highest frequencies. Where the aliased noise over-
laps with the signal, the apparent velocities of the noise
rate noise from signal. The aliased noise that reappears
in the negative wavenumber range has negative apparent
velocity, as opposed to the original noise that only shows
positive apparent velocity. This change in apparent dip is
typical for aliased noise and can be observed in Figure
1.11a.
Equations A.1 and A.3 also show an equals sign.
Strictly speaking, this is incorrect because the amplitude
of functions of frequencies or of wavenumber at f = fN or
k = kN cannot be reconstructed from the sampled values.
Therefore, the Nyquist frequency or wavenumber should
be chosen somewhat larger than fmax or kmax (Niland,
1989). The ambiguity of sampling exactly with kN = kmax is
wave that is well sampled as a function of time but is sam-
pled with only two samples per wavelength in the spatial
direction. This sampling at k = kN leads to an ambiguity
 294 Appendix A Sampling and aliasing

in the interpretation, as indicated by the two purple lines

oriented in opposite directions.
An event with constant apparent velocity Va is
described by a straight line in the f-k domain, where k =
f/Va. Often, the spatial sampling is the limiting factor for
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aliasing. Then the maximum frequency that is not aliased

in the t-x or f-k domain fmax,u is given by

fmax,u = kNVa . (A.4)

Fig. A.1. Illustration of sampling and aliasing. The red
90-Hz curve and the blue 10-Hz curve are sampled with the
same 10-ms sampling interval. The 100-Hz sampling rate is
For instance, for a spatial sampling interval of 25 m and
not sufficient to reconstruct the red curve from its samples apparent velocity of 300 m/s, fmax,u = 6 Hz. This frequency
because there are fewer than two samples per period. The should not be confused with the Nyquist frequency fN, the
blue curve can be reconstructed. maximum frequency that is not aliased in the time domain.

Fig. A.2. Sampling and aliasing in the f-k domain. (a) Representation of a continuous wavefield; yellow triangle is desired
signal, and green oval is low-velocity ground roll. (b) After sampling with a sampling frequency of 2kN, the original f-k spectrum
is repeated with a periodicity of 2kN. The wavenumber range {–kN, kN} shows the f-k spectrum after discarding larger absolute
wavenumbers. The ground roll is aliased and overlaps signal.

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Fig. A.3. Effect of sampling with kN = kmax. A 20-Hz plane
wave with an apparent velocity of 250 m/s is sampled with
exactly two samples per wavelength (50-m spatial sampling
interval). The effect is that apparent velocity –250 m/s can be
observed as well.
Appendix A Sampling and aliasing 295
Sampling an N-dimensional wavefield can often be
carried out more efficiently than just following the Shan-
non sampling theorem for each dimension separately.
This is formulated in the N-dimensional sampling theo-
rem of Petersen and Middleton (1962) (see also Bardan
[1987, 1996, 2009] and Vermeer [1990]). The theorem
could be applied in Vermeer (1990) to solve the sam-
pling paradox of 2D data that may be properly sampled
in the shot domain and the receiver domain but not in the
midpoint domain and in the offset domain. In 3D data
acquisition, the theorem can be applied successfully for
sampling areal geometry. In areal geometry, a hexago-
nal grid of samples requires fewer samples than a square
grid. Proper sampling with a square grid in (x, y) can be
replaced by proper sampling with a hexagonal grid in
which the spatial sampling intervals are somewhat larger
(see Figure 2.23).
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