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SEISMIC ACQUISITION
version 1.0 released 29/1/99

INTRODUCTION
ZERO-OFFSET AND CMP METHODS
NORMAL MOVEOUT
FORMING A CMP GATHER
TYPICAL ACQUISITION GEOMETRIES
GATHER TYPES AND DOMAINS
EFFECTS OF DIP AND STRUCTURE
SEISMIC ACQUISITION IN PRACTICE
OBSERVERS LOGS
NAVIGATION
RECORDING SYSTEMS
RECORDING POLARITY
SAMPLING AND ALIASING
TAPE FORMATS
ONBOARD PROCESSING
TYPICAL SHOT RECORDS
ADVANCED TOPICS

INTRODUCTION
In this section we introduce the concepts of seismic acquisition, starting with a
simple ray-based concept and ending with more practical details of the typical
systems in use today. The contents of this chapter are fundamental to seismic
processing.

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ZERO-OFFSET AND CMP METHODS

The simplest type of
acquisition would be to use a
single coincident source and
receiver pair and profile the
earth along a line as shown in
the adjacent figure. Such an
experiment would be called a
zero-offset experiment
because there is no offset
distance between source and
receiver (both marked as a
yellow dot on the figure). The
resulting seismic data will be
single-fold because there will
only be a single trace per

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sub-surface position. The

zero-offset concept is an
important one and the
method might be used in
practise if noise could be ignored. In order to overcome the noise problem and
additionally to estimate earth velocity, the method of acquisition most
commonly used is the Common-Mid-Point (CMP) method. The same method is
also called Common-Depth-Point (CDP). Neither of the two names exactly
describes the method, so while both are equally invalid, CMP is usually
preferred.

The general idea of the method is to acquire

a series of traces (gather) which reflect
from the same common subsurface mid-
point. In the adjacent figure source points
are shown in red and receiver points in
green. The traces are then summed
(stacked) so that superior signal-to-noise
ratio to that of the single-fold stack results.
The fold of the stack is determined by the
number of traces in the CMP gather.

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The earlier figure showed rays and the previous figure shows traces resulting
from a single six-fold CMP gather depicting reflections from a single flat
interface (these could be from any of the subsurface locations from the zero-
offset figure). The reflection from the flat interface produces a curved series of
arrivals on the seismic traces since it takes longer to travel to the far offsets
than the near offsets. This hyperbolic curve (shown in the dotted red line) is
called the Normal Moveout curve or NMO and is related to travel time, offset
and velocity of the medium as shown by the equation in the figure. Before
stacking the NMO curve must be corrected such that the seismic event lines up
on the gather. This is called Normal Moveout Correction and the results are
shown in the central portion of the figure. The moveout corrected traces are
then stacked, to produce the 6-fold stack trace, which simulates the zero-offset
response but with increased signal-to-noise ratio.

The CMP gather provides information about seismic velocity of propagation

since this is the only unknown variable in the NMO equation. If the velocity
applied is too low, the NMO curve will be overcorrected and if the velocity is
too high the curve will be undercorrected. Both under and overcorrection
result in a smeared stack which would be inferior to the perfect zero-offset
trace.

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CMP ACQUISITION
While a CMP could be acquired using a single
pair of source and receiver pair this would be
very expensive and time consuming way to
acquire several lines or a 3D cube of CMP
gathers. In practise CMP acquisition is
accomplished by firing the source into many
receivers simultaneously as shown in adjacent
figure (a) which depicts a shot gather where a
single shot (red) is fired into six receivers
(green). A receiver is also co-located with the
shot to produce a zero-offset trace. By moving
the source position an appropriate multiple of
the receiver spacing CMP gathers can be
constructed by re-ordering the shot traces (this
process is called sorting). Figure (b) shows the
original shot and second shot (traces in red). In
this case, the shot has moved up a distance
equal to the receiver spacing. The CMP spacing
is equal to half the receiver spacing. Figure 3c
shows how the fold of the CMP gathers is
starting to build up after six shots have been
fired. At the beginning of the line the fold
builds up to it's maximum of three. The fold
stays at the maximum until the end of the line
is reached where the fold decreases.

Questions:

1. What happens to the CMP spacing if the

receiver spacing is doubled ?

2. What happens to the fold if the receiver

spacing is doubled ?

3. What happens to the fold if the shot spacing is halved ?

4. What happens to the fold if the shot spacing is doubled ?

Typically the boat will travel around 4 knots (8 km/h) and the shotpoint interval
would be double the receiver group interval. A speed of 4 knots is
approximately 2m/s which means approximately 12s between shots for a 25m
shotpoint interval. During this time the compressors need to be able to
recharge the airgun array before firing again. If the boat travels too fast then
the desired record length may not be acquired, too slow and control of the
streamer equipment control may be lost. A compromise is required depending
on the geological target and sea conditions.

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As long as the shotpoint and receiver intervals are integer multiples of each
other the CMP fold can be calculated by dividing half the cable length by the
shotpoint interval. Non-integer increments can result in some strange
geometries such as variable CMP spacing and fold. The following table
summarises typical geometries. The fold calculation assumes a 3km cable and
all units are in meters. Note that the table refers to the fold and spacing as
acquired in the field. These parameters can, and often are, changed during the
seismic processing flow. The maximum recording time is that practically
established on modern vessels.

SHOT
SPACING RECEIVER CMP FOLD MAXIMUM
SPACING SPACING RECORDING

18.75 12.5 6.25 80 4.5s

25 12.5 6.25 60 8s

25 25 12.5 60 8s

50 25 12.5 30 20s

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GATHER TYPES
The adjacent figure
shows ray-paths
for various types of
gather which can
be constructed by
sorting traces from
the CMP
acquisition
technique. Data
sorting changes
the domain of the
data for example
from CMP domain
to common-offset
domain. Each trace
will be assigned a
series of identifiers
during acquisition
which will be used
to sort the data.
These identifiers or

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trace headers will

include things like
shot number,
receiver number,
trace number within shot and source-receiver offset. During processing the
data may be sorted many ways using these headers - usually in order to find a
domain where noise is separated from signal so it can be suppressed.
Whatever the processing sequence, the sort from shot to CMP gather must
always be applied before stacking.

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EFFECT OF DIPPING HORIZONS

The previous figures and discussion have assumed that the reflecting strata are
horizontal. Unfortunately the introduction of dip introduces many
complications as shown above. Figure (a) shows six-fold ray-paths for a
horizontal three reflector case and in (b) a case in which moderate dip is
involved. The CMP method holds for multiple layers and the data can be moved
out and stacked to produce three reflections. Note that refraction occurs at the
velocity boundaries and velocity increases in each layer. Where dip is present it
is clear that the CMP method is breaking down since the traces do not all
reflect from the same mid-point location. Processing techniques such as DMO
and Migration are required to accurately process CMP data acquired from
dipping strata. For further discussion on velocity analysis for multi-layered or
dipping data click here.

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MARINE ACQUISITION IN PRACTICE

Practical limitations limit the effectiveness with which we can acquire marine
seismic data. For example the modern sleeve airgun source does not produce
an exact impulse but is tuned to produce a broadband spectrum in the typical
seismic frequencies 5-100Hz.

The adjacent
figure shows
details of a
typical
acquisition
system (either
2D or 3D) in
cross section
mode. A number of points are noted with particular reference to seismic
processing.

1. The antenna forms the major reference point for the rest of the equipment
towed behind the vessel. Navigation positions are measured from the
antenna, however it is noted that the source to receiver distance is what is
required in processing.

2. The source (shown in red) is towed at a fixed offset and depth from the
back of the ship.
Several arrays of
airguns of different
volumes are tuned to
obtain as impulse a
source as possible.
The source signal is
affected by source
ghost reflections from
the sea surface which
destructively
interfere with the
signal at certain frequencies depending on the source depth (see adjacent
figure). The calculation assumes raypaths are vertical and that the sea-
surface reflection is -1. For a source depth of 7.5m frequencies of 0,
100Hz and 200Hz would be completely cancelled.

3. The receivers are mounted in a neutrally buoyant cable up to 9km long

(3km in the diagram) which is towed at a fixed depth and offset behind the
vessel and behind the source. The hydrophones are towed in groups
(shown in blue) which are usually spaced 12.5m apart. The recorded
signal is affected by receiver ghost reflections from the sea surface which
destructively interfere with the signal at certain frequencies depending on

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the receiver depth (see previous discussion on source ghost).

4. Particularly for 3D data a tailbuoy would be placed at the far end of the
streamer to mark the end and provide a navigational reference point.

The following figure shows the acquisition system in plan view for a typical 3D
vessel with two sources and four streamers. In this mode eight subsurface
CMP lines are acquired simultaneously. A 2D vessel would use a single source
and streamer towed behind each other to acquire a single subsurface line. It is
noted that the reality of acquisition is much more complicated than these
diagrams indicate. The diagrams show details of what is required for seismic
processing.

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OBSERVERS LOGS

The recording and acquisition details for each line within a survey are
described in the observers reports or logs. These usually paper (but
increasingly digital) reports are critical to the processing of seismic data.
Unfortunately they are often lost and are sometimes misleading and incorrect.
However they are records made in the field and may be the only place where
deviations from the acquisition specifications, such as missed shots, bad
traces, noise files, changes in near-trace offset, level of interference etc are
recorded. It is difficult (but not impossible) to process seismic data from field
tapes without the observers logs.

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NAVIGATION

A modern seismic acquisition system uses several navigation systems firstly to

determine and control the position of the vessel in the water and secondly to
determine the position of the seismic equipment trailing the vessel. Modern
systems almost exclusively rely on GPS (global positioning system) for the
majority of positioning. Small receivers mounted on the vessel, tailbuoys and
gun-floats can detect signals almost anywhere in the world from 3 or more
satellites and determine position within 10m via triangulation. Acoustic
systems or pingers are also used in 3D vessels on the source system. Some 3D
vessels additionally use laser positioning on the source and tailbuoys. A vast
amount of navigation data can be collected onboard a modern multi-streamer
seismic vessel. The navigation data requires onboard processing and checking
to ensure that all the measurements agree within error. This navigation data
should be provided along with the seismic data for data processing purposes
where the seismic and navigation information are merged. This is especially
important for 3D processing. Following navigation merge the seismic trace
headers contain the (x,y) positions of the source and receiver for that trace.

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POLARITY

As compresses air is expelled from the gun chamber it expands in the water to
form a bubble (rarefraction) which then collapses (compression). An initial
impulse is followed by the oscillitory bubble pulse. The Society of Exploration
Geophysicists (SEG) ambiguously defines polarity for seismic data recording,
that a rarefaction is a positive number and a compression a negative number
on tape. An increase in acoustic impedance or positive reflection coefficient is
also represented by a trough i.e. a negative number on tape. Once the data is
recorded it can be displayed at any polarity. Data is usually recorded at SEG
standard polarity.

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RECORDING

In the marine case the seismic reflections are recorded by hydrophones (which
detect pressure or acceleration changes) and in the land or ocean-bottom
seismic case by geophones (which detect motion or velocity changes). There is
a 90 degree phase change between the two systems. The signal is usually
recorded by analogue instruments and must be digitised to be stored on
computer tape. The process of digitising involves forming a time series of the
analogue signal by sampling it at a regular interval. A typical trace or record
length for exploration seismology would be 6 seconds although for deep crustal
work 15 to 20 seconds is common. Water-bottom acquisition systems often
combine geophone and hydrophone measurements.

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SAMPLING AND ALIASING

The use of digital computer technology means that the analogue signal must be
sampled at regular intervals in time in order to be processed. On older systems
this sampling was carried out at the recording system. On modern digital
systems the sampling is carried out within the streamer itself. Any signal would
be perfectly represented in the computer if an infinite number of samples were
taken.

The adjacent figure

shows a signal
sampled at two
different intervals.
The top slide shows
that a good
representation of
the 20Hz signal can
be made by samples
taken every 25ms
(marked by the blue
stars). In the
bottom slide
samples are taken
every 75ms. An
insufficient number
of samples are
taken and the
higher frequency
information is "lost"
or aliased. The
original 20Hz red curve appears as a 6.7Hz blue dotted curve.

The highest frequency f which can be sampled by inteval d is 1/2d - this is

called the Nyquist Frequency. Higher frequencies than this are said to be
temporally aliased because they will appear as if they are lower frequencies.
Typical sampling intervals are 1, 2, 4, 8 milliseconds with aliasing occurring
above 500,250,125,62.5 Hz respectively. If data are sampled at an interval of
4ms then a frequency of 150Hz would appear as if it were 100Hz i.e. it would
corrupt the true 100Hz signal. Before the data are sampled the higher
frequencies which would be aliased by the chosen sampling interval must be
removed by an analogue filter in the recording system.

Sampling is equally as important in space as it is in time and is discussed in

more detail here.

If either temporally or spatially aliased data are admitted into further

processing stages then artifacts and noise may well be introduced which could
potentially be misleading. An understanding of sampling (particularly spatial
sampling) is an important part of survey design and can affect survey costs and
quality. It is obviously important to sample signal correctly, but it is equally
vital to adequately sample noise if this is to be removed by processing routines.

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TAPE FORMATS

Several tape formats defined by the SEG are currently in use. These standards
are often treated quite liberally, especially where 3D data is concerned. Most
contractors also process data using their own internal formats which are
generally more efficient than the SEG standards.

The two commonest formats are SEG-D (for field data) and SEG-Y for final or
intermediate products. The previous figure shows the typical way in which a
seismic trace is stored on tape for SEG-Y format. The use of headers is
particularly important since these headers are used in seismic processing to
manipulate the seismic data. Older multiplexed formats (data acquired in
channel order) such as SEG-B would typically be demultiplexed (in shot order)
and transcribed to SEG-Y before processing. In SEG-Y format a 3200 byte
EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) "text" header
arranged as forty 80 character images is followed by a 400 byte binary header
which contains general information about the data such as number of samples
per trace. This is followed by the 240 byte trace header (which contains
important information related to the trace such as shotpoint number, trace
number) and the trace data itself stored as IBM floating point numbers in 32
byte format. The trace, or a series of traces such as a shot gather, will be
terminated by an EOF (End of File) marker. The tape is terminated by an EOM
(End of Media) marker. Several lines may be concatenated on tape separated
by two EOF markers (double end of file). Separate lines should have their own
EBCIDC headers, although this may be stripped out (particularly for 3D
archives) for efficiency. Each trace must have it's own 240 byte trace header.
Note there are considerable variations in the details of the SEG-Y format. The
AHC Houston documentation provides more details.

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ONBOARD PROCESSING

Modern acquisition vessels can quality control and process 2D and 3D seismic
data onboard depending on the size of computer system and number of
operators installed. A PROMAX system (or equivalent) and operator are usually
provided to QC the seismic data as it is acquired. Quality control would
typically included shot displays, FK analysis and brute stack displays. Full
onboard processing is possible if required and provides the ultimate QC tool -
at a cost. Onboard processing is the fastest way to process data and works well
in some areas but should generally be avoided as a mechanism for providing a

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final data since there is too much to go wrong.

The secret of successful onboard processing is to do your homework in

advance and to know the processing sequence ahead of time. Usually the
contractor is given examples of existing velocity fields, sections and data at
least a month in advance of the survey. The contractor will then start to form a
sequence on their system and start to resource the hardware required - ideally
involving the people onboard who will be doing the work. Source signatures
and other obvious things are often a sticking point at the last minute. The
velocity fields are critical if moveout based demultiple is to be attempted
onboard.

Pre-processing onboard (e.g. designature, temporal/spatial trace reduction,

navigation merge, trace edit/QC) and regular helicopter drops can often
achieve a similar turnaround, can cost less and produce better quality than full
onboard processing. Sometimes for speed the onboard pre-processed data is
taken through a fast-track sequence e.g. radon demultiple, 3D DMO stack and
the data migrated onshore and loaded to a workstation. This would typically
take 4 weeks from the end of survey. In practise the interpreter prefers to wait
for the final volume since otherwise the interpretation is done twice. If the 3D
is just being shot to confirm a well location which is already pretty firm then
onboard processing may be a viable route. Note the data may have to be re-
processed.

The contractor should ensure that someone senior onboard is responsible for
the processing. It is important for the oil company representatives (including
interpreter) to attend the mobilisation meeting (maybe even ride the boat for a
few weeks) to make sure the targets are defined and that everyone knows who
everyone is. As ever with contractors you are in the hands of the people doing
the job. Western Geophysical have a system where the data is processed
onboard remotely by a team based onshore. This hybrid method may be quite
attractive to some.

Most vessels can now ship off example sections or screendumps by email for
decision making back at base (either contractor/oil company or both) and staff
should be encouraged to do this if there is time. The ideal processing situation
is to shoot the first line and then go down for weather/technical downtime for a
week !! Velocity files can also be easily compressed and shipped if these are
being picked onboard. For this reason it may not be required to put a full-time
QC onboard. The onboard seismic rep should in any case be pretty
knowledgeable about processing. 

The contractors will often try and cut corners. For instance GECO used to
process everything at 16 bit onboard and stored intermediate data in their
format on exabyte cartridge. The contract should specify that a SEGY prestack
archive (e.g. after RADON demultiple) should be produced onboard on 3590
cartridges. This gives a good starting point when the re-processing inevitably
has to take place. Contractors will also try and cheat on the number of
parabolas used for RADON demultiple, often limiting to the fold or less. The
fold + 20% (or some other number) should be specified in the contract.

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IDENTIFYING REFLECTIONS AND NOISE

TYPES

The shot records in the previous figures are used to identify principal
reflections of interest, including various sources of noise. Click here to obtain
an enlarged display of a raw shot record and here to display the shot after t2
gain correction with events identified. When data is recorded raw noise files
are usually acquired at the beginning and end of line. A noise file is created by
recording a shot but not firing the source. The noise file in the previous figures
clearly shows noise generated by tug at the front end and far (from tailbuoy)
end of the streamer. This low frequency noise would typically be removed by a
combination of bandpass filtering and DMO. Noise files should be removed (by
editing) before processing. Field data are also acquired with several auxiliary
traces which would be removed (by editing) prior to processing. The near
channel is usually numbered 240 but in this instance is numbered 1. In the
figure the direct arrival does not arrive at time zero because there is a
recording delay built into the system which should be removed before
processing begins. Observers logs should detail channel numbers, noise files,
auxiliary traces and start of data delays. The second figure identifies several
events on the gain corrected shot. Yilmaz contains forty shot records from
around the world and indicates data and noise types.

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ADVANCED TOPICS
LAND ACQUISITION
SUBSEA or SEABOTTOM ACQUISITION
PLANNING A 2D SURVEY
PLANNING A 3D SURVEY
ARRAY DESIGN

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