Seismic trace interpolation in the f‐x‐y domain

Abstract

Seismic trace interpolation is implemented as a 2‐D (x, y) spatial prediction, performed separately on each frequency (f) slice. This so‐called f‐x‐y domain trace interpolation method is based on the relation that the linear prediction (LP) operator estimated at a given frequency may be used to predict data at a higher frequency but a smaller trace spacing. The relationship originally given for thef‐x domain trace interpolation is successfully extended to the f‐x‐y domain. The extension is achieved by masking the data samples selectively from the input frequency slice to design the LP operators. Two interpolation algorithms using the full‐step and the fractional‐step predictions, respectively, are developed. Both methods use an all‐azimuth prediction in the x‐y domain, but the fractional‐step prediction method is computationally more efficient. While the interpolation method can be applied to a common‐offset cube of 3‐D seismic, it can also be applied to 2‐D seismic traces for prestack data processing. Synthetic and real data examples demonstrate the capability of the interpolation method.