Measuring wavelet phase from seismic data

Abstract

Geophysicists are well into their second decade of serious interest in the seismic wavelet. Several requirements — to invert seismic complexes into their causative reflection series, to do stratigraphic modeling, to correct section displays to zero phase form, to standardize data of different vintages for composite structural mapping — put a knowledge of the basic wavelet shape, which can provide the way to satisfy these needs, near the top of every wish list. Ever since the convolutional model, with its basic wavelet and reflectivity series concepts, was proposed more than 30 years ago, there has been some kind of continuous effort to estimate the wavelet in a reliable and convenient manner. In spite of this constant attention, wavelets today are usually determined by directly measuring them in the field, or by estimating them in the processing environment through assuming their phase properties. Phase assumptions always leave the serious wavelet estimator a little queasy. He is always looking for some d...