Progressive denoising of seismic data via robust noise estimation in dual domains

Abstract

Random noise attenuation plays an important role in seismic data processing. Most traditional methods suppress random noise either in the time-space domain or in the transformed domain, which may encounter difficulty in retaining the detailed structures. We have introduced the progressive denoising method to suppress random noise in seismic data. This method estimates random noise at each sample independently by imposing proper constraints on local windowed data in the time-space domain and then in the transformed domain, and the denoised results of the whole data set are gradually improved by many iterations. First, we apply an unnormalized bilateral kernel in time-space domain to reject large-amplitude signals; then, we apply a range kernel in the frequency-wavenumber domain to reject medium-amplitude signals; finally, we can obtain a total estimate of random noise by repeating these steps approximately 30 times. Numerical examples indicate that the progressive denoising method can achieve a better denoising result, compared with the two typical single-domain methods: the [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] deconvolution method and the curvelet domain thresholding method. As an edge-preserving method, the progressive denoising method can greatly reduce the random noise without harming the useful signals, especially to those high-frequency components, which would be crucial for high-resolution imaging and interpretations in the following stages.