Joint imaging of streamer and vertical cable data based on plane‐wave encoding reverse‐time migration

Abstract

AbstractOffshore seismic surveys are typically conducted using streamers, which can make it challenging to accurately image deep and steep reflectors due to their horizontal layout and limited offset range. In recent years, vertical cable seismic acquisition has been developed as an alternative approach that utilizes a vertical layout to obtain wave field information not achievable by conventional streamers. However, relying solely on vertical cable seismic data does not produce high‐quality images due to its sparse detector distribution. To address this issue, we propose a joint imaging method based on reverse‐time migration that incorporates both streamer and vertical cable records. Our approach combines the back‐propagated wave fields of the streamer and vertical cable at each step of wave field extrapolation, providing more comprehensive wave field information than either one could provide individually. We then utilize zero‐delay cross‐correlation imaging conditions to generate a migration profile. To improve the efficiency of our reverse‐time migration algorithm, we employ a plane‐wave source encoding strategy for joint imaging. The effectiveness of our proposed method is validated using both the wedge model and the Marmousi model. By utilizing reverse‐time migration in the plane‐wave domain, our joint imaging method overcomes the limitations of poor imaging of steep‐dip formations with conventional streamer data. Additionally, it suppresses migration noise caused by insufficient illumination range from either streamer or vertical cable data alone. Overall, our joint imaging approach offers a promising solution for improving the accuracy and quality of offshore seismic surveys.