Joint Microseismic Event Detection and Location with a Detection Transformer

TL;DR

This paper introduces a unified deep learning framework combining detection and localization of microseismic events using a Transformer model, enabling more efficient and real-time subsurface monitoring.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated approach with a Transformer-based neural network for simultaneous microseismic event detection and location from waveform data.

Findings

Successfully detects and locates microseismic events in synthetic data.

Demonstrates practical applicability with field data from Arkoma Basin.

Shows potential for real-time microseismic monitoring.

Abstract

Microseismic event detection and location are two primary components in microseismic monitoring, which offers us invaluable insights into the subsurface during reservoir stimulation and evolution. Conventional approaches for event detection and location often suffer from manual intervention and/or heavy computation, while current machine learning-assisted approaches typically address detection and location separately; such limitations hinder the potential for real-time microseismic monitoring. We propose an approach to unify event detection and source location into a single framework by adapting a Convolutional Neural Network backbone and an encoder-decoder Transformer with a set-based Hungarian loss, which is applied directly to recorded waveforms. The proposed network is trained on synthetic data simulating multiple microseismic events corresponding to random source locations in the area of suspected microseismic activities. A synthetic test on a 2D profile of the SEAM Time Lapse model illustrates the capability of the proposed method in detecting the events properly and locating them in the subsurface accurately; while, a field test using the Arkoma Basin data further proves its practicability, efficiency, and its potential in paving the way for real-time monitoring of microseismic events.