A sparse solution for accurate seismic refraction arrival time selection

Abstract

Picking the seismic arrival time is an important parameter for the refraction studies. However, random noise, mainly generated by unknown sources, leads to the data quality reduction and incorrect arrival definition. Besides, picking the accurate first arrival time requires expert interpreters. Poor quality of seismic refraction data related to the high noise amount (because of human being-related noise and low energy source) leads to the reduce accuracy of automatic picking methods. For the improvement of the first arrival time selection, different operators are used. One of the operators used for arrival time picking is the derivation operator. Indeed, the calculation of the non-smooth first orders of derivation increases the standard deviation. Thus, to apply the derivative, sufficient smoothing is used to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio. In this study, we enhance the accuracy of first break picking by polynomial approximation and total variation (PATV) method. This method in three steps (smoothing, filtering, and denoising) prepares the signal for derivative operator implementation to pick the first break. We have determined the first arrival time with more accuracy.