Marine seismic acquisition with autonomous marine vehicles towing 3D sensor arrays

Abstract

The use of autonomous systems in marine environments has increased in recent years and covers activities from oceanographic studies, environmental awareness, maritime surveillance, defense, and oil and gas. For oil and gas, the current applications are related to meteorological and oceanographic monitoring, hydrocarbon detection and mapping, subsea communication by means of acoustic modems, and localized real-time geomagnetic surveys. The concept of the three-dimensional sensor array was very recently introduced, specifically for autonomous marine vehicle applications to seismic acquisition. We show results from some of our field experiments and simulation studies to demonstrate the potential of this new type of seismic acquisition technology.