Method and apparatus performing super-virtual surface wave interferometry

A seismic data processing apparatus configured to estimate surface waves in seismic data, the apparatus comprising:

• an interface configured to receive seismic data acquired over an underground formation;
• and
• a data processing unit connected to the interface and configured
• to obtain an incident dataset and a back-scattered dataset from the seismic data,
• to generate virtual back-scattered traces from pairs of traces extracted from the incident dataset and the back-scattered dataset, respectively,
• to stack the virtual back-scattered surface traces corresponding to waves propagating between same two sources to obtain a stacked virtual back-scattered dataset,
• to generate super-virtual back-scattered surface traces by correlating or convoluting pairs of traces with a common source, one trace from the stacked virtual back-scattered dataset and another from the incident or back-scattered dataset, and
• to stack the super-virtual back-scattered surface traces corresponding to waves propagating between same source and same receiver, to obtain an estimate of the surface waves,
• wherein the estimate of the surface waves is then used to obtain information about a near-surface layer and/or removed from the seismic data before processing to extract structural information about the underground formation.

A non-transitory computer readable media storing executable codes which, when executed by a processor make the processor perform a method for estimating surface waves in seismic data recorded over an underground formation, the method comprising:

• obtaining an incident dataset and a back-scattered dataset from the input dataset;
• generating virtual back-scattered traces from pairs of traces extracted from the incident dataset and the back-scattered dataset, respectively;
• stacking the virtual back-scattered traces corresponding to waves propagating between same two sources to obtain a stacked virtual back-scattered dataset;
• generating super-virtual back-scattered surface traces by correlating or convoluting pairs of traces with a common source, one trace from the stacked virtual back-scattered dataset and another from the incident or back-scattered dataset;
• and
• stacking the super-virtual back-scattered surface traces corresponding to waves propagating between same source and same receiver, to obtain an estimate of the surface waves,
• wherein the estimate of the surface waves is then used to obtain information about a near-surface layer and/or removed from the seismic data before processing to extract structural information about the underground formation.