Influencing factors of seismic signals generated by un-tuned large volume airgun array in a land reservoir

Abstract

Un-tuned large volume airgun array in a water reservoir is recently proposed as a new way to generate seismic waves on land. It can be used to explore the earth velocity structure and its temporal variations as well. However, the characteristics of seismic signals (especially far-field signals) from an airgun array in a reservoir and its affecting factors (firing pressure, airgun towing depth, water level of the reservoir, etc.) has not been adequately studied. We analyzed the seismic data collected from field experiments at Binchuan Transmitting Seismic Station in 2011 and 2013 and found that (1) The similarity of seismic signals decrease with distance, which is most likely induced by the decay of signal amplitude and signal to noise ratio (SNR); (2) The amplitudes of far-field airgun signals are almost linearly proportional to the firing pressure; (3) The towing depth of airgun has less effects on the far-field signals; (4) The amplitudes of far-field airgun signals are proportional to the water level of the reservoir.