Kirchhoff Prestack Time Migration Research Articles

High‐resolution 2.5D multifocusing imaging of a crooked seismic profile in a crystalline rock environment: Results from the Larder Lake area, Ontario, Canada

ABSTRACTA high‐resolution seismic reflection transect was acquired over a hard‐rock geological setting along an existing roadway in the Larder Lake area of the Superior Craton of Canada for the Metal Earth project in 2017. This profile, as well as other Metal earth transects, primarily aims to enhance the knowledge and to better understand the subsurface geology of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt within the Canadian Shield. The complex geological settings of the study area as well as the tribulations caused by the survey geometry have made the imaging and velocity field estimation more challenging. A recently introduced 2.5D multifocusing stacking method is one potential solution for processing crooked‐line seismic data with a poor signal‐to‐noise ratio. The 2.5D multifocusing approach offers more realistic modelling of the zero‐offset wavefield by explicitly accounting for the midpoint dispersion and cross‐dip effects. The main practical problem of the 2.5D multifocusing implementation is the simultaneous determination of the optimal wavefield parameters for each image point and time location. We address this optimization problem using a multidimensional constrained differential evolution global optimization algorithm, as this improves the efficiency and accuracy of the estimation. We have also designed an efficient processing sequence for multifocusing seismic imaging. The performance of the 2.5D multifocusing procedure has been examined on a synthetic model, generated using the same real acquisition geometry. Numerical tests demonstrate that the 2.5D multifocusing technique can produce a more focused stack with the primary reflections appearing at their poststack correct locations, and the procedure can also provide reliable estimates of interface dips. Due to the importance and difficulty of imaging the data, several conventional and advanced processing strategies have been attempted on the transect, specifically: 2D phase‐shift time migration of a dip moveout corrected stack; 2D prestack Kirchhoff time migration; swath 3D poststack migration; and our 2.5D multifocusing imaging algorithm. We found that applying the 2.5D multifocusing stacking algorithm followed by a poststack time migration approach improved the resolution of the image significantly compared to all the conventional and advanced methods and identified new reflections. The 2.5D multifocusing method also focused the steeply dipping reflections more coherently, which resolved ambiguities in geological architecture by understanding the location and continuity of structures. The method also accurately extracts 3D structural information and results in an improved signal‐to‐noise ratio.

Elastic anisotropic finite-difference full-wave modeling and imaging of 2D tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media

Imaging below the tilted transversely isotropic (TTI) media pose serious problems and distortions of the subsurface geological targets of interest for hydrocarbon exploration, which is very common in fold-thrust belts or active tectonic areas like the Rocky Mountain foothills of the Canada or foothills of the Himalaya. To model and image below the TTI media having symmetry axis orthogonal to dipping anisotropic layers, a 2D TTI thrust sheet is considered for elastic anisotropic finite-difference full-wave modeling and generation of synthetic seismic data using the robust staggered-grid scheme of wave propagation. Free-surface boundary conditions at the top and absorbing boundary conditions for the other three sides of the model have been imposed to reduce undesirable edge effects and suppress dispersions. The synthetic seismic data generated for the 2D TTI thrust model are migrated using the anisotropic Kirchhoff pre-stack time (PSTM) and depth migration (PSDM) technique followed by the migration velocity analysis (MVA) algorithm. The traveltime computations are made using robust eikonal equations with fourth-order elastic anisotropic finite-difference solutions to handle large tilts (ν) along with anisotropic ray-tracing to image below the TTI thrust sheet. The MVA algorithm adopted also estimates the anisotropic parameters ε and δ accurately within the acceptable error limit through successive iterations of inversion and parameter update, which results in sufficient flattening of the reflection events in the common image gathers (CIGs). This is a powerful and stable methodology to handle large tilt (ν = 60°) of the steeply dipping reflectors in complex geological structure like the TTI thrust model without much distortion of CIGs for which the symmetry axis of each TTI block is set orthogonal to the bottom of the reflectors having different tilts.

Migration velocity analysis based on focusing diffractions generated from CRS wavefront attributes: Application to real land data

In land seismic data processing, the prestack time migration (PSTM) image remains the standard imaging output, but a reliable migrated image of the subsurface depends on the accuracy of the migration velocity model. We have adopted two new algorithms for time-domain migration velocity analysis based on wavefield attributes of the common-reflection-surface (CRS) stack method. These attributes, extracted from multicoverage data, were successfully applied to build the velocity model in the depth domain through tomographic inversion of the normal-incidence-point (NIP) wave. However, there is no practical and reliable method for determining an accurate and geologically consistent time-migration velocity model from these CRS attributes. We introduce an interactive method to determine the migration velocity model in the time domain based on the application of NIP wave attributes and the CRS stacking operator for diffractions, to generate synthetic diffractions on the reflection events of the zero-offset (ZO) CRS stacked section. In the ZO data with diffractions, the poststack time migration is applied with a set of constant velocities, and the migration velocities are then selected through a focusing analysis of the simulated diffractions. We also introduce an algorithm to automatically calculate the migration velocity model from the CRS attributes picked for the main reflection events in the ZO data. We determine the precision of our diffraction focusing velocity analysis and the automatic velocity calculation algorithms using two synthetic models. We also applied them to real 2D land data with low quality and low fold to estimate the time-domain migration velocity model. The velocity models obtained through our methods were validated by applying them in the Kirchhoff PSTM of real data, in which the velocity model from the diffraction focusing analysis provided significant improvements in the quality of the migrated image compared to the legacy image and to the migrated image obtained using the automatically calculated velocity model.

OPTIMALISASI PENCITRAAN STRUKTUR BAWAH PERMUKAAN MENGGUNAKAN METODE KIRCHHOFF PRE-STACK TIME MIGRATION PADA DATA SEISMIK LAUT WETAR

Migration is one of the stages in seismic data processing aimed at returning the diffraction effect to the actual reflector point. The processing of a seismic data is adjusted to the existing problems in the data itself, so the accuracy in using the migration technique and determination of data processing parameters greatly affects the resulting seismic cross-section. Kirchhoff Pre-Stack Time Migration is one of the most used migration methods in seismic data processing because it shows better results than conventional stacking methods. The parameters that need to be noticed in the Kirchhoff migration are the migration aperture values. Based on this, variations of migration aperture values used are 75 m, 200 m and 512.5 m. The 512.5-m aperture migration value shows the best seismic cross-section results. This is evidenced by the capability in eliminating bowtie effects around CDP 600 up to CDP 800, eliminating diffraction effects around CDP 3900 to CDP 4050, and showing a seismic cross-section with better lateral resolution compared to the migration value of the aperture of 75 m and 200 m. Based on the seismic cross-section of migration results, the geological structure that can be identified is a fault that found in some CDP.

Establishing an effective offset‐dependent velocity model by ray tracing and its application in Kirchhoff time migration

ABSTRACTConventional Kirchhoff prestack time migration based on the hyperbolic moveout can cause ambiguity in laterally inhomogeneous media, because the root mean square velocity corresponds to a one‐dimensional model under the horizontal layer assumption; it does not include the lateral variations. The shot/receiver configuration with different offsets and azimuths should adopt different migration velocities as they contribute to a single image point. Therefore, we propose to use an offset‐vector to describe the lateral variations through an offset‐dependent velocity corresponding to the difference in offset from surface points to the image point. The offset‐vector is decomposed into orthogonal directions along the in‐line and cross‐line directions so that the single velocity can be expressed as a series of actual velocities. We use a simple Snell's law‐based ray tracing to calculate the travel time recorded at the image point and convert the travel time to an equivalent velocity corresponding to a pseudo‐straight ray. The double‐square‐root equation using such an equivalent velocity in the offset‐vector domain is non‐hyperbolic and asymmetrical, which improves the accuracy of the migration. Numerical examples using the Marmousi model and a wide azimuth field data show that the proposed method can achieve reasonable accuracy and significantly enhances the imaging of complex structures.

Application of Kirchhoff prestack time migration method of the 2D marine seismic data for mapping the subsurface structures in dip case Southern Aru, West Papua, Indonesia

The natural resources of oil and gas potential in the West Papua waters constitute a significant expansion of oil and gas investments in Indonesia’s maritime specifically the eastern region. South Aru is located at the eastern edge of the basin trough Aru and includes one of the most potential oil and gas basins. Complex geological structures such as the case of large dip make seismic cross section results do not represent the subsurface structure of the earth nearing the actual subsurface geological conditions. The working principle of Kirchhoff prestack time migration is looking for reflector positions using delay time of wave energy reflection to get a better seismic section on the tilted reflector with less diffraction effect and have little effect arch (smiling effect) which generates seismic section that can represent the subsurface structure of the earth. Reflectivity cross section of generally more clearly observed after the migration process is carried out so that the resolution of cross section seismic better, which can be useful as the data is ready to be interpreted as the purposes of determination prospects of natural resources, especially regarding the hydrocarbon potential of the South Aru, West Papua waters.

3D diffraction imaging with Kirchhoff time migration using vertical traveltime difference gathers

We have built a vertical traveltime difference (VTD) gather to image diffractions in the 3D time domain. This significantly improves detection of small-scale faults and heterogeneities in 3D seismic data. The VTD gather is obtained using 3D Kirchhoff prestack time migration based on the traveltime-related inline and crossline dip angles, which is closely related to the 2D dip-angle gather. In VTD gathers, diffraction events exhibit flattening, whereas reflection events have convex upward-sloping shapes. Different from the 2D dip-angle gather, Fresnel zone-related specular reflections are precisely focused on the given regions over all offsets and azimuths, thus leaving more diffraction energy after muting. To image linear diffractors, such as faults in three dimensions, the VTD gather can be extended into two dimensions by adding a dip-azimuth dimension. This makes it possible to correct phases of edge diffractions and detect the orientations of the linear diffractors. The memory requirement of the VTD or VTD plus azimuth gathers is much less than that of the 2D dip-angle gathers. We can store the gathers at each lateral position and then correct the phase and enhance the weak diffractions in 3D cases. Synthetic and field data tests demonstrate the effectiveness of our 3D diffraction imaging method.

Trace‐imposed stretch correction in Kirchhoff prestack time migration

ABSTRACTKirchhoff prestack time migration, which works trace‐by‐trace, remains appealing to academia and industry due to its robustness and efficiency. However, like the other prestack migration methods, Kirchhoff prestack time migration also suffers from the angle‐dependent stretching effect, which narrows the amplitude spectra of seismic data. This effect gets more severe as the incident angle increases. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, which attaches a prediction shaping filter to the Kirchhoff prestack time migration, to mitigate the stretching effect. Our approach takes advantage on the trace‐by‐trace implementation of the prestack time migration algorithm, without the output of the angle‐domain common‐imaging gather. Also, our method can cascade with Q‐compensation in prestack time migration. We demonstrate our method with both a numerical example and a field data example.

Borehole seismic survey using multimode optical fibers in a hybrid wireline

Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing is increasingly recognized as a viable alternative to geophone arrays for the acquisition of borehole seismic data. The ability to deploy optical fibers into a well, either as a cable based intervention or as part of a completion string, allows for the entire wellbore to be surveyed with every source activation. This can dramatically reduce the operating time required to complete a normal survey as well as offering the opportunity to achieve much higher spatial coverage than is typical of current technologies. The ability to acquire borehole seismic data in a producing well without the need to disrupt production also offers significant benefits to the operator.Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a novel technology that uses an optical fiber cable as a sensor for acoustic signals and can take almost any downhole fiber-optic installation or deployment and turn the fiber optic cable into a large downhole seismic array. This array can provide enhanced Vertical Seismic Profile (VSP) imaging and monitor fluids and pressures changes in the hydrocarbon production reservoir. Walkaway VSP data acquired over a former producing well in north eastern China provided a rich set of very high quality DAS Walkaway VSP data. A standard VSP data pre-processing workflow was applied, followed by prestack Kirchhoff time migration. In the DAS pre-processing step we were faced with additional and special challenges: strong coherent noise due to cable slapping and ringing along the borehole casing. In comparison with an earlier offset VSP data set using 327-levels acquired with conventional 3C downhole geophones in the same well, the final pre-processed DAS walkaway VSP has a larger vertical aperture resulting in a wider lateral image. The single well DAS Walkaway VSP images provide a good result with higher vertical and lateral resolution than the surface seismic in the objective area. The vertical well environment without the ability to effectively “clamp” the sensor to the borehole casing wall by touching, creates a unique set of challenges. Although earth signal was recorded with almost all the shots, there was also a considerable amount of noise. Much of the noise was due to the physical placement of the wireline in the well and expressed by slapping and ringing. This paper reports on lessons learned in the handling of the wireline cable and subsequent special DAS data processing steps developed to remediate some of the practical wireline deployment issues. Optical wireline cable as a conveyance of fiber optic cables for VSP in vertical wells will open the use of the DAS system to much wider applications.

Shallow water multichannel sub-bottom profiling using Kirchhoff imaging

Single-channel sub-bottom profilers are commonly used for shallow water seismic investigation. This work reports the design and construction of a multiple channel profiler that allows more effective seismic imaging techniques. The system is composed of a controlled acoustic source and a 1.6 m long array with eight evenly spaced receiver channels, and operates using CHIRP signals with frequency ranging from 800 Hz to 8 kHz. A survey was carried out to obtain seismic data in the region of Lagoa da Conceição, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The acquired data was processed using a seismic imaging technique based on the pre-stack Kirchhoff time migration. Both the multichannel seismic data acquisition system and the applied imaging technique showed to be robust for acquiring subsurface information. The use of the pre-stack Kirchhoff time migration resulted in a seismic image with reflection events allocated in the real position and without bow-tie effects since it repositions the diffracted energy back to the spreaders that originated it. This procedure results in a more reliable subsurface image of the studied environment, when compared with single-channel sub-bottom profilers.

Key preprocessing technology and its application for CBM AVO analysis

The hazards of amplitude versus offset (AVO) technique mostly applied in seismic explorations for predicting coalbed methane (CBM) content mainly derive from multi-stage amplitude modifications during seismic signal preprocessing. The modifications are undoubtedly necessitated by improving high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high resolution, and achieve high fidelity to some extent; and nevertheless lead to an unfavorable possibility to implement CBM AVO analysis. Similar to sandstone reservoir with gas, AVO analysis preprocessing for CBM reservoir strictly abides by a relative amplitude preserved (RAP) principle and particularly emphasizes on preserving the evanescent class IV AVO anomaly. As for those indispensable dealings with linear noise attenuations, near-surface variety compensations and time/depth spatial imaging, the key technologies adapted to CBM AVO preprocessing should use radial trace (RT) filter, refined surface-consistent amplitude compensation (SCAC), and RAP Kirchhoff prestack time migration (PSTM). The theoretical analysis and one real 3D example in this paper demonstrate that three key technologies compliant to RAP principle in CBM AVO preprocessing can preserve the class IV AVO anomaly and benefit an operation of CBM AVO analysis and an improvement of CBM evaluation.

The impact of multifocusing in the processing of land 3D seismic data in a fold and thrust belt setting: Ranquil Norte Block, Neuquén Basin, Argentina

A total of 270 km2 of 3D seismic data was acquired in the southeast corner of the Ranquil Norte Block in the north of the fold and thrust belt area of the Neuquén Basin, west of Argentina. The survey was acquired in an area with hard topography, disturbing anthropomorphic conditions, and very complex subsurface geology. All of these situations negatively contributed to the signal-to-noise ratio of the resulting data. Therefore, and considering a structural target only, the main objective of the seismic processing sequence was the mitigation of the impact of such geologic and anthropomorphic noise on the data. Initially, a tailored processing sequence was performed, including noise suppression in the cross-spread domain. This first processing approach included Kirchhoff prestack time migration, structural seismic interpretation, velocity modeling, tomography, and Kirchhoff prestack depth migration. Given that multifocusing can deliver high-resolution subsurface images in areas with similar challenging conditions, this processing technique was then included in the processing workflow. Naturally, this second approach necessarily involved a reinterpretation of the structural model, a rebuilding of the velocity model, and a new tomographic computation. A significant improvement of the results was achieved in this manner.

A snapshot of the geotectonics and petroleum geology of the Durban and Zululand Basins, offshore South Africa

The offshore Durban and Zululand Basins have recently become of interest to the oil and gas industry as a result of large discoveries made along the eastern margin of Africa, most notably in Tanzania and Mozambique. In South Africa, exploration over the last three decades has focused on near-shore trends of rotated fault blocks and a combination of structural-stratigraphic traps. This has resulted in the drilling of four wells north-east of the city of Durban. Although no wells have been drilled in the deepwater acreage yet, the area is considered to have petroleum potential. As a result of the growing industry interest and with collaboration from Spectrum and the Petroleum Agency of South Africa (PASA), CGG acquired a new multi-client broadband 2D seismic survey (CDZ13-14) in the Durban and Zululand Basins (Figure 1). The data were processed with Kirchhoff pre-stack time migration (PreSTM). The survey was shot and processed in two phases (2013-2014) using BroadSeis, a proprietary broadband solution using variable-depth streamers and advanced imaging technologies, and consisted of 6920 km of 2D lines over held acreage. The survey is made up of 42 lines widely spaced over the Durban and Zululand Basins and includes 17 strike lines and 25 dip lines. Water depths within the area of interest range from 400 m to 3200 m. The results of this broadband 2D survey have shed new light on the interpretation of the geology in the area.

Accelerating Pre‐stack Kirchhoff Time Migration by Manual Vectorization

SummaryThe Pre‐stack Kirchhoff Time Migration (PKTM) is a central process in petroleum exploration. As PKTM is computationally intensive, many works have proposed the use of accelerators like GPU and FPGA to improve its execution time. On the other hand, although many off‐the‐shelf processors are endowed with a set of SIMD vector instructions, few papers tackle the problem considering vectorization and all of them consider that compilers can successfully vectorize the code. In this paper, we show that programming PKTM by using SIMD vector instructions manually is more efficient than the automatically and semi‐automatically vectorized codes, provided by a hardware specific compiler and library. Experiments considering both real and synthetic datasets showed that our solution is more than four times faster than the traditional code. It also outperformed automatically vectorized codes in all tests. We believe that the proposed strategy can be used together with the other ones to accelerate seismic migration methods in general without new investments in hardware. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The offset-midpoint traveltime pyramid of P-waves in homogeneous orthorhombic media

The offset-midpoint traveltime pyramid describes the diffraction traveltime of a point diffractor in homogeneous media. We have developed an analytic approximation for the P-wave offset-midpoint traveltime pyramid for homogeneous orthorhombic media. In this approximation, a perturbation method and the Shanks transform were implemented to derive the analytic expressions for the horizontal slowness components of P-waves in orthorhombic media. Numerical examples were shown to analyze the proposed traveltime pyramid formula and determined its accuracy and the application in calculating migration isochrones and reflection traveltime. The proposed offset-midpoint traveltime formula is useful for Kirchhoff prestack time migration and migration velocity analysis for orthorhombic media.

Improvement of seismic structural interpretation of Zagros fold-thrust belt by dip scanning in common diffraction surface imaging method

Geological interpretation and seismic imaging on data acquired from complex media, especially when accompanied by a thick layer of salt and/or anhydrate, is always a controversial task. The aim of this study is to introduce a method for seismic imaging of complex structures and study the folding scenario of the Zagros overthrust in SW Iran based on the improved seismic image processed by the proposed method. A diffraction based version of the common reflection surface stack method, called the common diffraction surface (CDS), was selected to enhance quality of seismic image from the Zagros fold-thrust belt. The 2D CDS method was also developed here to 3D partial CDS. Consequently, three sets of 2D and a set of 3D seismic data were processed with the conventional Kirchhoff prestack time migration and the partial common diffraction surface methods. Geological models released in previous studies of the Zagros overthrust were used as the base model of interpretation. Structural interpretation on seismic sections with new method was in accordance with previous geological models and improved in some parts where the new method could enhance quality of the seismic image. Seismic structural interpretation shows the inner part of the belt was subjected to folding, uplift and erosion. This mechanism constituted a resistant mass in the Dezful Embayment in front of the SW moving thrust and folds. This resistant mass formed tightly folded or thrusted and highly shortened structures in the Izeh zone and High Zagros area. In the oil rich zone of the Dezful Embayment, the thick evaporate—rich Gachsaran Formation, decouples the folding above it from the folding below, making seismic imaging of potential traps beneath the detachment horizons extremely difficult.

Practical Implementation of Prestack Kirchhoff Time Migration on a General Purpose Graphics Processing Unit

In this study, we present a practical implementation of prestack Kirchhoff time migration (PSTM) on a general purpose graphic processing unit. First, we consider the three main optimizations of the PSTM GPU code, i.e., designing a configuration based on a reasonable execution, using the texture memory for velocity interpolation, and the application of an intrinsic function in device code. This approach can achieve a speedup of nearly 45 times on a NVIDIA GTX 680 GPU compared with CPU code when a larger imaging space is used, where the PSTM output is a common reflection point that is gathered as I[nx][ny][nh][nt] in matrix format. However, this method requires more memory space so the limited imaging space cannot fully exploit the GPU sources. To overcome this problem, we designed a PSTM scheme with multi-GPUs for imaging different seismic data on different GPUs using an offset value. This process can achieve the peak speedup of GPU PSTM code and it greatly increases the efficiency of the calculations, but without changing the imaging result.

Walkaway VSP using multimode optical fibers in a hybrid wireline

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a novel technology that uses an optical fiber cable as a sensor for acoustic signals and can take almost any downhole fiber-optic installation or deployment and turn the fiber-optic cable into a large downhole seismic array. This array can provide enhanced vertical seismic profile (VSP) imaging and monitor fluids and pressure changes in the hydrocarbon-production reservoir. Walkaway VSP data acquired over a formerly producing well in northeastern China provided a rich set of high-quality DAS walkaway VSP data. A standard VSP data preprocessing workflow was applied, followed by prestack Kirchhoff time migration. In the DAS preprocessing step, we were faced with additional challenges: strong coherent noise due to cable slapping and ringing along the borehole casing. Compared with an earlier offset VSP data set using 327 levels acquired with conventional 3C downhole geophones in the same well, the final preprocessed DAS walkaway VSP has a larger vertical aperture, resulting in a wider lateral image. The single-well DAS walkaway VSP images provide a good result with higher vertical and lateral resolution than the surface seismic in the objective area. The vertical-well environment, which lacks the ability to effectively “clamp” the sensor to the borehole-casing wall by touching, creates a unique set of challenges. Although earth signal was recorded with almost all the shots, there was also a considerable amount of noise. Much of the noise was due to the physical placement of the wireline in the well and was expressed by slapping and ringing. Reported here are lessons learned in handling the wireline cable and subsequent special DAS data processing steps developed to remediate some of the practical wireline deployment issues. Optical wireline cable as a conveyance of fiber-optic cables for VSP in vertical wells will open the use of the DAS system to wider applications.

Prestack migration velocity analysis based on simplified two-parameter moveout equation

Stacking velocity VC2, vertical velocity ratio γ0, effective velocity ratio γeff, and anisotropic parameter χeff are correlated in the PS-converted-wave (PS-wave) anisotropic prestack Kirchhoff time migration (PKTM) velocity model and are thus difficult to independently determine. We extended the simplified two-parameter (stacking velocity VC2 and anisotropic parameter keff) moveout equation from stacking velocity analysis to PKTM velocity model updating and formed a new four-parameter (stacking velocity VC2, vertical velocity ratio γ0, effective velocity ratio γeff, and anisotropic parameter keff) PS-wave anisotropic PKTM velocity model updating and process flow based on the simplified two-parameter moveout equation. In the proposed method, first, the PS-wave two-parameter stacking velocity is analyzed to obtain the anisotropic PKTM initial velocity and anisotropic parameters; then, the velocity and anisotropic parameters are corrected by analyzing the residual moveout on common imaging point gathers after prestack time migration. The vertical velocity ratio γ0 of the prestack time migration velocity model is obtained with an appropriate method utilizing the P- and PS-wave stacked sections after level calibration. The initial effective velocity ratio γeff is calculated using the Thomsen (1999) equation in combination with the P-wave velocity analysis; ultimately, the final velocity model of the effective velocity ratio γeff is obtained by percentage scanning migration. This method simplifies the PS-wave parameter estimation in high-quality imaging, reduces the uncertainty of multiparameter estimations, and obtains good imaging results in practice.

Velocity analysis of simultaneous-source data using high-resolution semblance—coping with the strong noise

Direct imaging of simultaneous-source (or blended) data, without the need of deblending, requires a precise subsurface velocity model. In this paper, we focus on the velocity analysis of simultaneous-source data using the normal moveout-based velocity picking approach.We demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a precise velocity model directly from the blended data in the common-midpoint domain. The similarity-weighted semblance can help us obtain much better velocity spectrum with higher resolution and higher reliability compared with the traditional semblance. The similarity-weighted semblance enforces an inherent noise attenuation solely in the semblance calculation stage, thus it is not sensitive to the intense interference. We use both simulated synthetic and field data examples to demonstrate the performance of the similarity-weighted semblance in obtaining reliable subsurface velocity model for direct migration of simultaneous-source data. The migrated image of blended field data using prestack Kirchhoff time migration approach based on the picked velocity from the similarity-weighted semblance is very close to the migrated image of unblended data.