On “Analyzing the effectiveness of receiver arrays for multicomponent seismic exploration” (B. H. Hoffe et al., GEOPHYSICS, 67, 1853‐1868).

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Hoffe et al. (2002) provide a thorough and instructive analysis of the benefit of using receiver arrays for P-P and P-S data acquisition. Their conclusion that “geophone groups are unnecessary for P-P data acquisition and detrimental to P-S data quality” applies to data acquisition in “the Blackfoot area, given the source configuration and the 24-bit recording instrument.” The question may be asked: In how far is this conclusion applicable to acquisition in other areas than Blackfoot? Intuitively, one might say that the conclusion would apply to areas with low levels of ground roll and with rapid variations in shear-wave statics. In areas with a low level of ground roll, suppression of this noise by stacking and migration may be adequate. In other areas, described for instance in Newman (2000), the severe ground roll requires arrays for its suppression. Yet, at the same time there may still be rapid variations in shear-wave statics. The detrimental effect of intra-array shear-wave statics is clearly shown in the paper and likely applied in many other areas. The only way of satisfying the requirement to suppress severe ground roll while not harming the P-S waves is by reducing the group interval, not using arrays, but suppressing noise in prestack processing, stacking, and migration (i.e., in the computer rather than in the field).