Separating prestack diffractions with SVMF in the flattened shot domain

Abstract

Abstract Separating weak diffractions in the prestack domain plays a vital role in high-resolution imaging small-scale discontinuities or inhomogeneities, which are associated with the migration paths and storage spaces for carbonate fracture-cave reservoirs. A shot-domain diffraction separation method is proposed with a SVMF (space-varying media filter) in the flattened shot domain. The diffractions with fast dynamic changings, including damping amplitudes and phase reversal, are filtered out by the spacing-varying median filter along the prediction-step directions of the flattened shot domain. The proposed method opens a possibility for separating diffractions in the shot domain and has an advantage in the traditional common-offset diffraction separation method. A numerical experiment illustrates the good performance of the proposed method in eliminating reflections and separating diffractions in the shot domain, and the field application further verifies its potential value in resolving the hidden small-scale cavities and tiny faults in carbonate reservoirs.