The inverse scattering series approach towards the elimination of land internal multiples

Abstract

The estimation and subsequent elimination of internal multiples in land seismic data is one of the most challenging steps in data processing. Although marine multiple elimination techniques, such as the SRME technology, are well established, in land their implementation is not straightforward and in many cases poor results are obtained. In this paper we use theoretical concepts from the Inverse Scattering Series (ISS) formulation and develop computer algorithms for land internal multiple elimination. The key characteristic of the ISS-based methods is that they do not require any information about the subsurface, i.e., they are fully data driven. Internal multiples from all possible generators are computed and adaptively subtracted from the input data. These methodologies can be applied preand post-stack and their performance is demonstrated using realistic synthetic and field datasets from the Arabian Peninsula. These are the first published results of the application of the ISS internal multiple attenuation method to the daunting challenge of land internal multiples.