Renewable Energy

Participants will learn how to:

1. Recognise the most common seismic acquisition and processing techniques used in near surface imaging.
2. Demonstrate the fundamentals of sampling theory, modelling and seismic survey design and consequences for acquisition, processing and near surface objectives
3. Construct a typical seismic processing workflow covering data preparation, parameterisation, noise & multiple suppression, velocity model building, the imaging process & likely issues at each step.
4. Liaise more effectively with specialists to make optimum decisions regarding data quality.

Seismic technology is continuously changing towards improved imaging while reducing cost and turnaround. The main aim of the course is to provide a demonstration of current geophysical and processing techniques that can be applied to seismic data for near surface characterisation. From a basic knowledge of seismic processing, the attendees will be given an overview of standard practice, and then for each method we will introduce the basic theory (with few equations), parameterisation, benefits, limitations, pitfalls and likely impact. Where possible we will focus on the applications of the techniques using modern real case histories and common terminology. Interactive processing exercises, using land and marine synthetic and real data examples are provided throughout the course to enable the attendees to grasp the importance of key parameters.

Session 1: Basic Theory and Simple Processing Flow

• Geophysics refresher: an acquisition and processing primer including a brief overview of basic wave theory, noise suppression, velocity model building, stacking, imaging and factors affecting resolution of shallow seismic targets.
• Basic building blocks including convolution, sampling, aliasing and interpolation.
• Simple data conditioning techniques including trace scaling, automatic gain control and frequency and dip filtering

Session 2: Survey Design Workflow

• Technical aspects of survey design featuring a basic survey design workflow using rules of thumb and modelling to design surveys for shallow targets

Session 3: Signal Processing, Noise and Multiple Supression Workflow

• Wavelet processing including designature, attenuation compensation and combining acquisition and processing solutions to obtain broadband data and improved resolution of near surface targets.
• Noise: types, suppression and quality control in Marine and Land seismic data
• FK, radon, tau-p analysis denoise examples and quality control.
• Multiple suppression examples and quality control

Session 4: Imaging Workflow

• Basic migration, prestack time migration and gather generation.
• Correcting for velocity variation and complex sub-surface: Prestack depth migration.

Bonus Material

The following sections are available online but not extensively covered during the main sessions.

• Seismic data formats: seismic and navigation formats, pitfalls and quality control.
• Data loading: dynamic range (bit precision), reconciling navigation and seismic data, common pitfalls when loading depth data, land data and gathers with recommended quality controls. Seismic display and colour-bars.
• Processing tenders: a brief overview of tendering seismic processing contracts.

This course is aimed at geoscientists seeking an overview of new geophysical techniques and processing methods applied to near surface imaging.