Common-Reflection-Surface stack: accounting for conflicting dip situations by considering all possible dips

Soleimani, M., Piruz, I., Mann, J. and Hubral, P., 2009. Common-Reflection-Surface stack: accounting for conflicting dip situations by considering all possible dips. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 18: 271-288. The common-reflection-surface stack was originally introduced as a data-driven method to simulate a zero-offset section from 2D seismic reflection prestack data. The principle of the CRS stack is to sum along a surface of contributions from an entire segment of a reflector instead of a reflection point. The aim of the CRS stack is not only to provide a well-simulated zero-offset section but also to determine certain attributes of hypothetical wavefronts at the acquisition surface. The CRS stack is independent of explicit velocity information and only requires the near-surface velocity in case a geometrical interpretation of its stacking parameters is desired. An important aspect of the method is that the estimated parameters are kinematic wavefield attributes which provide significant information on subsurface structures. The pragmatic search strategy of the original CRS stack implementation consists of three one-parameter searches. This implementation determines only one optimum stacking operator for each ZO sample to be simulated. Consequently, conflicting dip situations are not taken into account but only the most prominent event contributes to a particular stack sample. In one of the efforts to overcome this problem, the strategy has been extended in order to take into account up to five conflicting dips at each sample. Here, we propose a strategy which explicitly considers all possible angles and, thus, accounts for all the conflicting dips that may exist at each zero-offset sample to be simulated. This new strategy offers some advantages, e.g., it improves the continuity of events, reflections as well as diffractions, in conflicting dip situations. It also generally emphasizes diffraction events in the stacked section so that we can call it common-diffraction-surface stack. This method has the drawback that it does not give any section of wavefield attributes or coherence as, e.g., required for CRS-based tomography. Here, we processed the Sigsbee 2A synthetic data and also a real land data set with the new method and observe enhanced diffraction events and resolved conflicting dip situations. For the real data set, the definition of faults after poststack migration significantly improves.
- Hale, D., 1991. Dip Moveout Processing. SEG, Tulsa, OK.
- Hertweck, T., 2004. True-amplitude Kirchhoff Migration: Analytical and Geometrical
- Considerations. Logos Verlag, Berlin.
- Hertweck, T., Jager, C., Mann, J., Duveneck, E. and Heilmann, Z., 2004. A seismic reflection
- imaging workflow based on the Common-Reflection-Surface (CRS) stack: theoretical
- background and case study. Expanded Abstr., 74th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., Denver: SP
- 3.
- Hertweck, T., Schleicher, J. and Mann, J., 2007. Data-stacking beyond CMP. The Leading Edge,
- 26: 818-827.
- Hubral, P. (Ed.), 1999, Macro-model Independent Seismic Reflection Imaging. J. Appl. Geophys.,
- 42: 137-346.
- 288 SOLEIMANI, PIRUZ, MANN & HUBRAL
- Jager, R., 1999. The Common Reflection Surface Stack - theory and application. M.Sc. thesis,
- University of Karlsruhe.
- Jager, R., Mann, J., Hécht, G. and Hubral, P., 2001. Common-Reflection-Surface stack: image and
- attributes. Geophysics, 66: 97-109.
- Mann, J., 2001. Common-Reflection-Surface stack and conflicting dips. Extended Abstr., 63rd
- EAGE Conf., Amsterdam: P077.
- Mann, J., 2002. Extensions and Applications of the Common-Reflection-Surface Stack Method.
- Logos Verlag, Berlin.
- Mann, J., Hocht, G., Jager, R. and Hubral, P., 1999. Common Reflection Surface stack - an
- attribute analysis. Extended Abstr., 61st EAGE, Helsinki: P140.
- Mann, J., Hubral, P., Traub, B., Gerst, A. and Meyer, H., 2000. Macro-model independent
- approximative prestack time migration. Extended Abstr., 62nd EAGE Conf., Glasgow: B-52.
- Miiller, T., 1998. Common Reflection Surface stack versus NMO/stack and NMO/DMO/stack.
- Extended Abstr., 60th EAGE Conf., Leipzig: 1-20.
- Miller, T., Jager, R. and Hécht, G., 1998. Common Reflection Surface stacking method - imaging
- with an unknown velocity model. Expanded Abstr., 68th Ann. Internat. SEG Mtg., New
- Orleans: 1764-1767.
- Nelder, J.A. and Mead, R., 1965. A simplex method for function minimization. Computer J., 7:
- 308-313.