Decomposition and utilization of source and receiver ghosts in marine seismic reflection survey data

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to decompose and utilize ghost signals in marine seismic data, improving subsurface imaging by exploiting mirror-image effects to enhance data quality and bandwidth.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel approach to decompose ghost signals and use them as additional data, enhancing seismic imaging capabilities.

Findings

Ghost signals can be decomposed and used to improve signal-to-noise ratio.

Exploiting mirror-image effects widens the frequency bandwidth.

Decomposition enhances subsurface imaging accuracy.

Abstract

In marine seismic reflection surveys, most data comprise only the pressure acquired by a hydrophone array. The acquired data are subject to frequency bandwidth limitations caused by the contamination of surface-reflected ghost signals associated with seismic signals generated by artificial sources such as airguns. This study developed a method to exploit the mirror-image effect to control these signals and image the subsurface structure using signals generated by virtual seismic sources at locations mirroring actual sources. The processing results indicate that decomposed ghost signals can be regarded as additional survey data to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio and widen bandwidth.