A Universal Simultaneous Shooting Technique

De Kok, R. and Gillespie, D.

Expanded Abstract paper A-04, 64th EAGE Conference
Florence Italy, 27-30 May 2002

Abstract

A novel method for the simultaneous recording of seismic data from two or more sources is presented. The coding for the different sources consists of the introduction of either polarity or time delay changes in the field. Separation is achieved through polarity decoding, followed by averaging and/or interpolation during processing. For purposes of averaging, not only dedicated techniques, but also standard processes such as stacking and migration can be relied on. The method is applicable to all possible types of sources and has no restriction as to their location. For instance, standard air-gun arrays may fire in combination with high-resolution sources. The method can be applied to impulsive sources as well as vibrators, both in marine and land environments, and can be used in combination with other simultaneous techniques for additional discrimination. Preliminary results from an experiment in the Gulf of Mexico yielded a discrimination of 15 dB through 40 fold stacking. Additional dedicated processing methods have indicated the potential for a substantial higher source separation.