The role of remote sensing data in near-surface seismic characterization

Abstract

Andreas Laake and Andrew Cutts, WesternGeco, UK show how remote sensing data can enhance seismic-based near-surface model building. The characterization of the near-surface is among the most significant challenges in onshore surface seismic technology. Advanced seismic techniques such as point source and point receiver based methods have revealed the impact the near-surface has on the coupling of sources and receivers and on the generation and propagation of seismic noise modes. Modern seismic data acquisition and processing techniques require corrections for coupling perturbation and surface wave noise to provide correct data for the characterization of hydrocarbon reservoir. Seismic acquisition can only provide local information about the near-surface properties in the vicinity of the sources and the receivers due to the common practice of recording the seismic data along source and receiver lines. The resulting near-surface model is based on spatially limited information.