Nonstretching normal-moveout correction using a dynamic time warping algorithm

Abstract

Normal-moveout (NMO) correction is one of the most important routines in seismic processing. NMO is usually implemented by a sample-by-sample procedure; unfortunately, such implementation not only decreases the frequency content but also distorts the amplitude of seismic waveforms resulting from the well-known stretch. The degree of stretch increases with increasing offset. To minimize severe stretch associated with far offset, we use a dynamic time warping (DTW) algorithm to achieve an automatic dynamic matching NMO nonstretch correction, which does not handle crossing events and convoluted events such as thin layers. Our algorithm minimizes the stretch through an automatic static temporal correction of seismic wavelets. The local static time shifts are obtained using a DTW algorithm, which is a nonlinear optimization method. To mitigate the influence of noise, we evaluated a multitrace window strategy to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of seismic data by obtaining a more precise moveout correction at far-offset traces. To illustrate the effectiveness of our algorithm, we first applied our method to synthetic data and then to field seismic data. Both tests illustrate that our algorithm minimizes the stretch associated with far offsets, and the method preserves the amplitude fidelity.