Integrated estimation of interval-attenuation profiles

Abstract

Quantitative estimates of seismic attenuation are useful for a variety of applications, ranging from seismic-acquisition design, to seismic processing, amplitude analysis, and reservoir characterization. I frame the estimation of interval attenuation from a set of seismic wavelets as a linear inversion of their log-amplitude spectra. The initial spectrum at the first depth location and a set of depth-varying amplitude scalers are estimated simultaneously with an effective-attenuation [Formula: see text] profile. The algorithm can be regarded as a tomographic extension of the spectral-ratio method that uses all the information available in the amplitude spectra, appropriately weighted so that estimates are not biased by noise. Constraints can be applied to ensure the [Formula: see text] values vary smoothly, and solving for log [Formula: see text] rather than [Formula: see text] ensures only positive attenuation values. Tests on synthetic and field data illustrate the trade-off between vertical resolution and sensitivity to noise. A covariance study indicates that improvements in interval-attenuation estimates over the traditional spectral-ratio method come from systematic-noise handling and the explicit constraints on [Formula: see text], rather than the fact that the inversion ties the log-spectral data together with a single estimate of the spectrum at the first depth location.