Dithered slip-sweep acquisition
Claudio Bagaini* and Ying Ji, Schlumberger
Summary
A new technique for simultaneous vibroseis acquisition and
processing, which is denominated dithered slip-sweep
(DSS) acquisition, is here introduced. The objective of this
technique is the high-productivity acquisition of data whose
prestack quality enables applications such as amplitude
variation with offset (AVO) and amplitude versus angle
(AVA) analyses. This technique, which hinges on features
of modern land acquisition systems such as large channel
count and continuous recording, leads to acquisition
scenarios with favorable conditions for prestack
separability of simultaneously acquired data.
A two-fold dithered dataset is generated starting from a
conventional dataset. It is shown that, after separation of
the dithered records using a modeling and inversion
techniques, the interference noise due to simultaneous
shooting is substantially eliminated and that the prestack
and poststack data are comparable with those obtainable
with sequential shooting using the same number of shot
gathers sequentially acquired.
Introduction
Several acquisition and processing methods have been
proposed in the last three decades to increase productivity
in vibroseis acquisition (Bagaini, 2010). The availability of
continuous recording systems with a very large channel
count and the ability of the source control systems to
manage a large number of vibrator fleets have made these
methods a viable and often cost-effective solution today. In
2009, peak productivities that exceeded 1000 VPs/hr were
reported (Howe et al., 2009; Matheny et al., 2009). These
peak productivities are almost an order of magnitude higher
than previously published values of average productivity
for 3D land crews working in the Middle East (Burger et
al., 1999; Al-Ghamdi and Al-Shammery, 2008).
The ultimate productivity values can be achieved if all the
vibrators sweep independently without any attempt to
synchronize their activities (Howe et al., 2009). This
technique of independent simultaneous shooting (ISS)
generates interference noise that can, depending on the
distance between vibrators and the firing times, be
extremely severe on individual shot gathers. The
challenging attenuation of the interference on prestack data
can be attempted either using filtering techniques for
random noise attenuation applied in a domain where the
interference noise appears incoherent (e.g., common
receiver or offset gathers) or using an inversion approach
© 2010 SEG
SEG Denver 2010 Annual Meeting
(Abma and Yan, 2009). Multichannel processing steps
such as stack and migration attenuate, to some extent, the
residual noise.
This abstract describes a new acquisition and processing
technique termed dithered slip-sweep (DSS) acquisition
that combines, at the acquisition stage:
 the dithered acquisition (Stefani et al., 2007; Moore
et al., 2008) and
 the slip-sweep acquisition technique originally
proposed by Rozemond (1996)
and, at the processing stage:
 the separation for dithered source described by
Moore et al. (2008) and
 the harmonic noise attenuation method described by
Jeffryes (2006) and Bagaini (2008).
The DSS constraints on the firing times, which will be
described in this abstract, keeps the interference noise in
prestack data under control such that the algorithms for its
attenuation can work more effectively than when the
vibrators do not synchronize their activities at all. If
systems with a very large channel count are used to cover a
wide area together with an adequate number of seismic
vibrators, distance separation can be used to acquire data
with high-productivity rates and minimum contamination
of individual records. This idea is at the base of the
schemes proposed for marine acquisition by Beasley et al.
(1998), and in the case of land, the distance separated
simultaneous sweeping (DS3), by Bouska (2010).
However, because the minimum separation of vibrators
shooting in DSS mode is lower than in DS3, DSS may
enable more than two groups of vibrators to shoot at
virtually the same time. Although this abstract describes an
example of DSS with time dithering, the application of
phase dithering is a possible alternative.
Theory
Dithered slip-sweep acquisition combines at the acquisition
stage, the dithered acquisition method (Stefani et al., 2007;
Moore et al., 2008) and the slip-sweep acquisition method
originally proposed by Rozemond (1996). The interference
noise of this acquisition method is extremely predictable
and can be attenuated taking into account its specific
features. The harmonic noise, always generated by
hydraulic vibrators, can be attenuated with the methods
described in Jeffryes (2006) and Bagaini (2008). The
dithered noise can be addressed with the technique
described in Moore et al. (2008).
91
 Dithered slip-sweep acquisition
Two conditions on the earliest time at which one vibrator
(or fleet of vibrators) can start sweeping are cyclically
applied. The example of a two-fold dithered slip-sweep
acquisition shown in Figure 1 helps to explain these
conditions. The first condition is the dithering time
condition, and the vibrators to which this condition is
applied form a dithering group (or pair in a two-fold
dithered acquisition). The dither times (typical values are a
few hundred ms) can be planned or determined in real time
to generate incoherent events in a domain different than the
acquisition domain. The separation will then be carried out
in this domain, which can be multidimensional for 3D
acquisitions.
The two shot points A1 and A2 (here arbitrarily called
master and dithered records), which are acquired almost
simultaneously, can be extracted from the dithered record
by explicitly taking into account the respective firing times.
A condition on the minimum distance of the vibrators that
compose the dither pair prevents the very energetic short
offsets of one vibrator from overwhelming the signals
recorded by the medium or large offsets of the other
vibrator.
In the absence of harmonic noise generated by the vibrators
and if the Earth response is of finite length, the second
condition (slip-time condition) would simply impose a time
delay equal to the practical duration of the Earth’s impulse
response, i.e., the listening time. In the presence of
harmonic noise, a more restrictive condition, i.e., the slip
time, is the second condition applied for the firing times of
B1 and B2. The values of the minimum slip time and
methods to attenuate harmonic noise are described in
Jeffryes (2006) and Bagaini (2008).
Figure 1. Example of a two-fold dithered slip-sweep acquisition.
The admissible firing times according to the dithered slip-sweep
rules are shown for four VPs beneath the corresponding vibrator.
The sweep starting times are, therefore, partially
determined by the dither times, which in general, may be
positive or negative, and represent the start time of the
second sweep in the dithered pair relative to the start time
of the master sweep in the same pair. The start times of
both sweeps B1 and B2 of the dither pair 2 must be more
© 2010 SEG
SEG Denver 2010 Annual Meeting
than the slip time ST, after the later of the start times of
sweeps A1 and A2. For the sake of simplicity, Figure 1
shows the sweep start times in the case when the dither
times are all positive. Obviously, the acquisition system
selects the vibrators that will constitute the dither pairs in
real time among those vibrator that satisfy the distance and
slip-time conditions and not at the planning stage.
Figure 2 shows a schematic representation in time-
frequency domain of a trace recorded from four shot points
during a dithered slip-sweep acquisition as the one depicted
in Figure 1. The Earth’s response to the fundamental and
the second-order harmonic are the grey shaded beneath the
green and red lines, respectively. If the slip-sweep time is
set such that the slip-sweep component of the dithered slip-
sweep acquisition is non-aggressive, the most significant
interference noise is due to the dithered vibrator. In the
examples in Figure 1 and Figure 2, this is the
contamination of A1 due to A2 (and vice versa) and the
contamination of B1 due to B2 (and vice versa).
Figure 2. Schematic time-frequency representation of a trace
acquired by a single receiver illuminated from four vibration points
in a dithered slip-sweep sequence. The responses to the
fundamental component of the ground force and its 2nd harmonic
are represented as the shaded (grey) parallelograms beneath the
green and red straight lines, respectively. The duration of Earth’s
response is schematically shown as frequency independent.
Data example
To assess the effectiveness of the modeling and inversion
algorithm proposed by Moore at al. (2008) for the
separation of dithered slip-sweep vibroseis data, a dithered
slip-sweep dataset was generated starting from a
conventionally acquired 2D vibroseis line. A 5.6-km 2D
line was acquired with a linear sweep (5-80 Hz, 16 s) and a
shot-receiver group interval of 25 m. The receiver spread,
whose length was also approximately 5.6 km, was fixed.
The dither pairs were simulated by summing the shot
gathers acquired by one vibrator that started at the
92
 Dithered sllip-sweep acqu
uisition

beginning ofo the line and an nother that starteed half way, i.e.,
about 2.8 km m apart, with ap
ppropriate ditherr times. This is a
small distannce separation that
t yields noisee interference att
offsets all thhe way down to about 1.2 km. TheT dither valuess
were positivve and in the rannge 300-800 ms.
Datasets wiith several slip-ssweep values were generated too
simulate diffferent possible scenarios. Figuure 3 shows ann
example of a dithered recorrd and a commonn receiver gatherr
extracted frrom one of the generated dithhered slip-sweepp
datasets (sliip time is 12 s).
s Figure 4 shoows a common--
offset gather before (left pan
nel) and after sepparation (middlee
and right paanels). After sep paration and reaalignment in thee
master timee, the events dued to the mastter shots appearr
coherent annd no evident leeakage from thee other source iss
apparent (mmiddle panel). Th he events of thee dithered sourcee
in the masteer time appear to
o be incoherent and
a to follow thee
dither timess for these data acquired over a prevalently flatt
geology (rigght panel).
simpllest approach, which
w is referredd as passive sepaaration,
consists of duplicatinng the dithered reecords and alignning the
two records
r accordinng to the masterr and dithered vibrator
v
firingg times (interfereence attenuationn is simply achieeved by
the foold of stack at the
t image level). Algorithms baased on
predicction error filters that were originally developped for
randoom noise attenuaation can be appllied in a domainn where
the dither noise appeears incoherent, such as the com mmon-
receivver gather shownn in Figure 3b.
Figurre 5 compares thhe CMP stacks obtained for the 2D2 line
described above in the t case of connventional acquuisition:
ditherred slip-sweep acquisition
a with passive separatiion and
separation using thee modeling and inversion appproach
(Mooore et al., 2008)). Despite the substantial
s interfference
due tot the small disstance between vibrators in thee dither
pair, the stack after passive separaation is not maassively
contaaminated. The substantial
s diffeerent moveout of the
interffering events has helped to stacck them out. Hoowever,
the coontamination is evident as steeep dipping eventts. The
prevaalence of dips inn one direction is due to the faact that
positiive only ditherrs were appliedd to the vibratoor that
acquiired the shot gathers on the right sidde. Its
contaamination is, theerefore, more seevere than vice versa.
The application
a of the
t modeling annd inversion appproach
(Figuure 5c) has remooved these residuual dipping evennts and
the signal appears to be
b well preserveed.

Concclusions

This paper describes a high-pproductivity vibbroseis

(a) acquiisition and separration techniquee termed dithereed slip-
sweepp acquisition. It combines two techniques:
t slip-sweep
and dithered
d acquisiition, that have been previously, but
indiviidually, used in land vibroseis and
a marine acquuisition,
respectively. Conditions on the sw weep start timees and
condiitions on the adm missible distancee between two or o more
fleetss of vibrators, which
w can be appplied in real timee, keep
the innterference undder control such that the sepparation
algoriithms can attenuuate it. A ditheered slip-sweep dataset
with 2.8-km minimuum distance betw ween vibrators, which
was generated
g from a conventional dataset, demonnstrates
the method.
m It is expeected that the accquisition rules applied
a
during a dithered slip-sweep acquuisition will produce p
dataseets that can be more effectivelyy separated thann when
the vibrators
v sweep without synchroonizing their acctivities
(b) withoout significantlyy affecting thhe productivityy. The
enhannced quality of prestack
p separatted data will maake this
technnique suitable forr beyond-imaginng applications suchs as
Figure 3. Simmulated dithered vibroseis acquisittion. (a) Ditheredd
record. (b) Dithered
D common n-receiver gather.. The green linee
AVO O analysis.
shows the ditther times. The values of the red and
a blue lines aree Ackn
nowledgments
proportional to
t the master and dithered
d shot offseets.

Several otheer algorithms baased on the sam

me principles cann We thhank Ian Mooree and Ed Kraghh of Schlumbergger for
be considerred for the sepaaration of ditherred records. Thee several insightful diiscussions on simultaneous shooting.

© 2010 SEG
SEG Denver 2010 Annual Meeting 93
 Dithered slip-sweep acquisition

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 4. Common-offset gather extracted from the dithered slip-sweep acquisition. (a) Original gather. (b) After separation for the master source
in the master time. (c) After separation for the dithered source in the master time.

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 5. Dithered slip-sweep acquisition. Stack comparisons for (a) Conventionally acquired 2D vibroseis line. (b) Dithered vibroseis acquisition
with “passive” separation of the dithered records. (c) Dithered vibroseis acquisition after separation of prestack data based on a modeling and
inversion approach.

© 2010 SEG
SEG Denver 2010 Annual Meeting 94
 EDITED REFERENCES
Note: This reference list is a copy-edited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2010
SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copy edited 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.

REFERENCES

Abma, R. L., and J. Yan, 2009, Separating simultaneous sources by inversion: 71st Annual Meeting,
EAGE, Expanded Abstracts, V002.
Al-Ghamdi, T., and H. Al-Shammery, 2008, Optimizing vibroseis productivity in Saudi Aramco: EAGE
Vibroseis Workshop, Extended Abstracts, EarthDoc -15993.
Bagaini, C., 2008, Vibroseis acquisition method: US Patent application WO2008110743 A2.
Bagaini, C., 2010, Acquisition and processing of simultaneous vibroseis data: Geophysical Prospecting,
58, no. 1, 81–100, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2478.2009.00842.x.
Beasley, C., Chambers, R,E. and Zerong Jiang, 1998, A new look at simultaneous sources, 68th Annual
Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 133-135.
Bouska, J., 2010, Distance separated simultaneous sweeping, for fast, clean, vibroseis acquisition:
Geophysical Prospecting, 58, no. 1, 123–153, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2478.2009.00843.x.
Burger, P., B. Duijndam, and D. Wasmuth, 1999, Marine production levels in land 3-D seismic : The
Leading Edge , 18, no. 10, 1170–1175, doi:10.1190/1.1438176.
Howe, D., M. Foster, T. Allen, I. Jack, D. Buddery, A. Choi, R. Abma, T. Manning, and M. Pfister, 2009,
Independent simultaneous sweeping in Libya-full scale implementation and new developments: 79th
Annual Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 109-111.
Jeffryes, B. P., 2006, Method of seismic surveying: US Patent 7,050,356, Priority date 6 Apr 2002.
Matheny, P., R. Sambell, S. Mahrooqi, S. Yarubi, and S. Abri, 2009, Evolution of the land seismic super
crew: 79th Annual Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 81-85.
Moore, I., W. Dragoset, T. Ommundsen, D. Wilson, C. Ward, and D. Eke, 2008, Simultaneous source
separation using dithered sources: 78th Annual Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 2806-2810.
Rozemond, H. J., 1996, Slip-sweep acquisition: 66th Annual Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 64-67.
Stefani, J., G. Hampson, and E. F. Herkenhoff, 2007, Acquisition using simultaneous source: 69th Annual
Meeting, EAGE, Expanded Abstracts, B006.

© 2010 SEG
SEG Denver 2010 Annual Meeting 95