Restoration of seismic data based on alternating direction method and total variation theory
Yu Sang*, Weigong Meng and Ping Guo, Liaohe Oilfield Company, CNPC; Keqiu Li, Dalian University of
Downloaded 11/11/17 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/
Technology, China; Shusheng Gao and Hongwen Song, Liaohe Oilfield Company, CNPC
Summary
Improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and resolution of
seismic data are crucial for high-precision seismic
exploration. Currently, many denoising methods and
deconvolution approaches are presented. However, there
has always been a technical problem that improving the
SNR and improving the resolution are mutual influence and
restriction. To solve the problem, we present a novel
seismic data restoration approach based on alternating
direction method and total variation theory in this paper,
which can effectively recover seismic data from
convolution and noisy observation. It simultaneously
conducts denoising and deconvolution for seismic data. To
the best of our knowledge, this is the first exploration in the
geophysical fields using such a mathematical theory. We
apply the proposed algorithm to the synthetic data and real
seismic data. The comparison shows that our proposed
algorithm can recover the seismic data better and have a
faster convergence.
Introduction
The expansion of seismic studies to deep layers, complex
structures and lithology exploration has increased the
demand for high quality seismic data. Improving the signal-
to-noise ratio (SNR) and resolution are crucial for studies
that use seismic data. Many denoising methods have been
proposed such as traditional random noise reduction
(Canales, 1984), curvelet transform denoising (Yuan et al.,
2013), nonlocal means filtering (Bonar et al., 2012),
dictionary learning and denoising (Beckouche et al., 2014)
and treamlet-based transform denoising (Wang et al., 2015).
Meanwhile, many deconvolution approaches have also
been presented to improve the resolution such as
conventional Wiener filter (Treitel, 1974), deconvolution
with L1-norm (Taylor et al., 1979), Parametric sparse-spike
deconvolution (Danilo, 2006) and P-norm based blind
deconvolution (Cao et al., 2014). Current denoising
techniques and deconvolution techniques are often
implemented separately.
However, there has always been an issue that improving the
SNR and improving the resolution are mutual influence and
restriction in geophysical fields. That is to say, improving
the resolution can lead to decrease the SNR; vice versa.
This is a long-term technical problem. Therefore,
developing an effective method that can solve the problem
is very important for high-resolution seismic exploration.
In this paper, we present a novel restoration scheme of
seismic data based on alternating direction method and total
© 2016 SEG
SEG International Exposition and 86th Annual Meeting
variation theory, which can recover seismic data from
convolution and noisy observation. It simultaneously
conducts denoising and deconvolution for seismic data. To
our knowledge, this is the first research in the field of
seismic exploration using such a mathematical theory.
Firstly, we give a brief introduction to the proposed method,
and then we use the synthetic data and real seismic data to
prove the correctness of our algorithm.
Method
In conventional deconvolution techniques, there exists an
assumption that the observed seismic data are noise free. So,
conventional deconvolution objective function can be
written as
f = Kx , (1)
where f is the observed seismic data assuming no noise. x
is the original or synthetic data, K is a convolution
operator. The objective is to recover x from f . But there
must be some noise in seismic data. Now we consider the
presence of noise. The deconvolution objective function
can be defined as
=f Kx + n , (2)
where n is the additive noise (Gaussian or impulsive
noise). So, the objective is to recover x from convolution
and noisy observation f , which is refereed as
deconvolution and denoising. According to Vogel et al.
(1998), the best fit model is obtained by minimizing
Kx − f , which is suitable for Gaussian and impulsive
1
noise, where ⋅ denotes L1 norm. However, it is well-
1
known that recovering x from f by directly inverting (2)
is unstable and produces useless results because the
solution is highly sensitive to the noise n . To stabilize the
recovery of x , one must utilize some prior information. In
such a stabilization scheme, a common approach is to add a
regularizer to certain data fidelity. Therefore, we add the
total variation (TV) regularization (Rudin et al., 1992) to
the model in this paper, acquiring a new model as
min TV ( x ) + µ Kx − f , (3)
x 1
TV (x ) = ∑i =1 Di x 2 , t is the number of traces,
s⋅t
where
s is the sampling number in each trace, ⋅ 2 denotes L2
norm. D i is a general local finite difference operator.
µ > 0 is a positive parameter which is used to balance the
two terms for minimization. Equation (3) can be rewritten
as
Page 4792
 min
x,y
{∑ s ⋅t
i =1
y i 2 + µ Kx − f 1 : y i = Di x, i = 1, , s ⋅ t , (4) } Now, we give the ADM scheme. Algorithm 1. Initialize
x = f and λ = λ 0 .
Downloaded 11/11/17 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/

where ｙi is an auxiliary variable. Then, the classical While "not converged", Do

quadratic penalty method (Nocedal et al., 2000) can be 1) Compute y k +1 ( )
according to (9) for given x k , λ k .
applied to (4), which gives the following unconstrained
optimization formulation 2) Compute x k +1 via solving (10).
k +1
3) Update λ
( ) + µ Kx − f
s ⋅t
min ∑ y i
via (11).
+ β y i − Di x , (5)
2

x,y
i =1
2 2 1
End Do
where β >> 0 is a penalty parameter. It is feasible to terminate Algorithm 1 by relative change in
x in all of our experiments, i.e.,
Then, we apply the alternating direction method (ADM) ( k +1
x −x k
2
{
max x ,1 < ε
k
2
}) , where ε > 0 is a
(Gabay et al., 1976) to (5). Started at x=f and λ = λ0 . given tolerance.
It yields the following iterative scheme
 y k +1 ← arg min y L Α ( x k , y , λ k ) , Examples
 We apply the above algorithm to the synthetic data and real
 k +1
 x ← arg min x L Α ( x, y , λ ) ,
k +1 k
seismic data in China. Conventional Wiener filter and
 k +1 random noise reduction methods, which have been widely
 λ ← λ − β ( y − Dx ) .
k +1 k +1

k

(6) used in large processing systems such as Omega, CGG and

GeoEast, are applied to process synthetic data for
where x ,y ,λ
k k k
denotes the k th iteration values. comparison. For synthetic data without noise, the time
L Α ( x, y, λ ) is the augmented Lagrangian function of (4) sampling interval is 1 ms and the number of traces is 150
(Figure 1(a)). We conduct convolution operation on Figure
defined by 1(a) using motion kernel function from MATLAB and get
∑( y )
s⋅t
L Α ( x, y, λ=) − λ iT ( y i − Di x ) + β y i − Di x 2 + µ Kx − f 1 , (7)
Figure 1(b). The resolution is decreased. We restore Figure
2
i 2 1(b) using Wiener filter and our algorithm, obtaining
i =1
Figure 1(c) and 1(d), respectively. It is obvious that the
where each λi is a vector in ℜ2 space. It is easy to show result by Wiener filter decrease the SNR though the
that the minimization of L Α ( x, y , λ ) with respect to y is resolution is improved. In contrast, the restored result by
our algorithm is essentially consistent with the original
equivalent to s ⋅t two-dimensional problems of the form synthetic data, and no additional noise is added.
2
 1 k 
min ｙi 2 + β ｙi −  Di x k +
β
λ i  , i = 1, , s ⋅ t. (8) ( ) We add strong Gaussian white noise and strong impulsive
ｙi
 2 noise to the synthetic data, and conduct Gaussian kernel
According to Yang et al. (2009), the solution of (8) is given convolution operation on the synthetic data, as shown in
explicitly by the two-dimensional shrinkage Figure 2(a). We can see that the valid signals are
 1   k 1 k  (9) completely submerged by the noise. We restore Figure 2(a)
y i = max  Di x + ( λ ) ,0   sgn  Di x + ( λ ) ,
k +1 1 k
k
−
 β i
2
β   β i
 using random noise reduction method and our algorithm,
obtaining Figure 2(b) and 2(c), respectively. It is obvious
where "  " and "sgn" represent, respectively, point- that random noise reduction method only removes some
wise product and the signum function. On the other random noise and the effective signals are still vague. In
hand, fixing λ = λ k and y = y k +1 , the minimization of contrast, our algorithm achieves a good recovery result.
Figure 2(d) show the relation curves between iterations and
LΑ with respect to x is a least squares problem and the SNR, and between iterations and function values. Our
corresponding normal equations are algorithm is convergent when the number of iterations is
 T µ   1  µ about 10. This notes that the algorithm is efficiency.
 D D + K T K x = DT  y k +1 − λ k  + K T f , (10)
 β   β  β We apply our algorithm to real seismic data, a CMP gather
where D is the first-order global finite difference operator. and a time migration profile, as shown in Figure 3(a) and
The new iterate x k +1 can be obtained by solving (10). 4(a). The processed result (Figure 3(b)) for the CMP gather
Finally, we update λ by show that the reflected signals highlights and the SNR is

λ k +1 = λ k − β y k +1 − Dx k +1 . ( ) (11)
improved significantly. In addition, the processed result
(Figure 4(b)) for the time migration profile show that 1) the
effective signals are separated from the overlap, especially

© 2016 SEG Page 4793

SEG International Exposition and 86th Annual Meeting
 in the red arrow pointing area; 2) Some effective signals are algorithm as shown in Figure 5. Obviously, our new
enhanced, especially in the blue arrow pointing area; 3) the restoration method recovers the seismic data better than the
Downloaded 11/11/17 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/

interlayer structure is clearer. And, the dominant frequency conventional method. This further proves the feasibility and
has been widened after processing Figure 4(a) by our reasonability of our method.
0
0

100 100

200 200

t/s
300
t/s

300

400 400

500 500

600 600
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
Trace number Trace number

(a) (b)
0
0

100
100

200 200
t/s

300 t/s 300

400 400

500 500

600 600
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
Trace number Trace number

(c) (d)
Figure 1: The synthetic model (a) and convolution model (b) conducting motion kernel function on synthetic model. The result (c) by Wiener
filter and the result (d) by our algorithm.
0 0

100 100

200 200

300 300

400 400

500 500

600 600
0 50 100 150 0 50 100 150
(a) (b)
SNR history Function values
0 8

6
100

200
2

300 0

-2
400
-4
4
10
500 -6

-8
600 0 20 40 60 0 10 20 30 40
0 50 100 150 Iterations Iterations

© 2016 SEG Page 4794

SEG International Exposition and 86th Annual Meeting
 (c) (d)
Figure 2: Convolution and strong noisy model (a). The result (b) by random noise reduction and the result (c) by our algorithm. Relation curves
Downloaded 11/11/17 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/

(d) between iterations and SNR, and between iterations and function values.

(a) (b)
Figure 3: CMP gather (a) and the result (b) processed by our algorithm.

(a) (b)
Figure 4: Time migration profile (a) and the result (b) processed by our algorithm.
1
Original data convolution and noisy observation. It can simultaneously
Our method
0.8
enhance the signal to noise ratio and resolution of seismic
Amplitude (Normalization)

data, which solves the technical problem of their mutual

0.6 restriction. The comparison shows that our proposed
0.4
algorithm can recover the seismic data better and have a
faster convergence.
0.2

Acknowledgements
0
0 20 40 60 80
Frequency (Hz)
Figure 5: Spectrums of Figure 4(a) and 4(b) This work was supported by the National Science
Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China
Conclusions (Grant No. 61225010); National Science Foundation of
China under Grant Nos. 61273165 and 61300189;
We present a new seismic data restoration approach based Postdoctoral project funded by PetroChina Liaohe Oilfield
on alternating direction method and total variation theory, Company; Project funded by China Postdoctoral Science
which can effectively recover seismic data from Foundation.

© 2016 SEG Page 4795

SEG International Exposition and 86th Annual Meeting
 EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copyedited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2016
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copyedited so that references provided with the online
metadata for each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web.
Downloaded 11/11/17 to 132.236.27.111. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/

REFERENCES
Beckouche, S., and J. W. Ma, 2014, Simultaneous dictionary learning and denoising for seismic data:
Geophysics, 79, no. 3, A27–A31, http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/geo2013-0382.1.
Bonar, D., and M. Sacchi, 2012, Denoising seismic data using the nonlocal means algorithm: Geophysics,
77, no. 1, A5–A8, http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/geo2011-0235.1.
Canales, L. L., 1984, Random noise reduction: 54th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded
Abstracts, 525–527.
Cao, J., and Y. Wang, 2014, P-norm based seismic data blind deconvolution: 84th Annual International
Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 5183, http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/segam2014-0216.1.
Danilo, R. V., 2006, Parametric sparse-spike deconvolution and the recovery of the acoustic impedance:
76th Annual International Meeting, SEG, 2141–2144, http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/1.2372500.
Gabay, D., and B. Mercier, 1976, A dual algorithm for the solution of nonlinear variational problems via
finite-element approximations: Computers & Mathematics with Applications (Oxford, England),
2, 17–40, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0898-1221(76)90003-1.
Nocedal, J., and S. J. Wright, 2000, Numerical optimization: Springer.
Rudin, L. I., S. Osher, and E. Fatemi, 1992, Nonlinear variation based image removal algorithms: Physica
D. Nonlinear Phenomena, 60, 259–268, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-2789(92)90242-F.
Taylor, H. L., S. C. Banks, and J. F. Mccoy, 1979, Deconvolution with L1-norm: Geophysics, 44, 39–52,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/1.1440921.
Treitel, S., 1974, The complex Wiener filter: Geophysics, 39, 169–173,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/1.1440419.
Vogel, C. R., and M. E. Oman, 1998, Fast, robust total variation based reconstruction of noisy, blurred
images: IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, 7, 813–824,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/83.679423.
Wang, B., R. S. Wu, X. Chen, and J. Li, 2015, Simultaneous seismic data interpolation and denoising
with a new adaptive method based on treamlet transform: Geophysical Journal International, 201,
1182–1194, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggv072.
Yang, J. F., W. T. Yin, Y. Zhang, and Y. L. Wang, 2009, A fast algorithm for edge-preserving variational
multichannel image restoration: SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences, 2, 569–592,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1137/080730421.
Yuan, Y. H., Y. B. Wang, Y. K. Liu, and X. Chang, 2013, Non-dyadic curvelet transform and its
application in seismic noise elimination: Chinese Journal of Geophysics, 56, 1023–1032.

© 2016 SEG Page 4796

SEG International Exposition and 86th Annual Meeting