Determining a seismic quality factor for subsurface formations from a seismic source to a first VSP downhole receiver

A system for determining a seismic quality factor Q for intervals of subsurface formations, the system comprising:

• one or more processing devices;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processing devices, cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:
• receiving vertical seismic profile traces;
• filtering the vertical seismic profile traces with an inverse impulse response of a downhole receiver;
• transforming the filtered vertical seismic profile traces from particle motion measured by the downhole receiver to far-field particle motion represented by a source wavelet;
• determining a spectral ratio of spectral amplitudes of a direct arrival event of the transformed vertical seismic profile traces and the source wavelet;
• and
• generating, from the spectral ratio, a value for a quality factor Q representing an attenuation of the vertical seismic profile traces between a source at ground level surface and the downhole receiver;
• generating, based on the value of the quality factor Q, a corrected seismic image, the corrected seismic image having a higher resolution than another seismic image generated independent from using the value of the quality factor Q;
• and
• generating, based on the seismic image, a map of the subsurface formations.

One or more non-transitory computer readable media storing instructions for determining a seismic quality factor Q for intervals of subsurface formations, the instructions, when executed by one or more processing devices, being configured to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations including:

• receiving vertical seismic profile traces;
• filtering the vertical seismic profile traces with an inverse impulse response of a downhole receiver;
• transforming the filtered vertical seismic profile traces from particle motion measured by the downhole receiver to far-field particle motion represented by a source wavelet;
• determining a ratio of spectral amplitudes of a direct arrival event of the transformed vertical seismic profile traces and the source wavelet;
• and
• generating, from the spectral ratio, a value for a quality factor Q representing an attenuation of the vertical seismic profile traces between a source at ground level surface and the downhole receiver;
• generating, based on the value of the quality factor Q, a corrected seismic image, the corrected seismic image having a higher resolution than another seismic image generated independent from using the value of the quality factor Q;
• and
• generating, based on the seismic image, a map of the subsurface formations.

A method for determining a seismic quality factor Q for intervals of subsurface formations, the method comprising:

• receiving vertical seismic profile traces;
• filtering the vertical seismic profile traces with an inverse impulse response of a downhole receiver;
• transforming a source wavelet from a far-field particle motion represented by the source wavelet to the far-field particle motion measured by vertical seismic profile downhole receivers;
• determining a ratio of spectral amplitudes of a direct arrival event of the transformed far-field particle motions and the far-field particle motion of the vertical seismic profile traces;
• and
• generating, from the spectral ratio, a value for a quality factor Q representing an attenuation of the vertical seismic profile traces between a source at ground level surface and the downhole receiver;
• generating, based on the value of the quality factor Q, a corrected seismic image, the corrected seismic image having a higher resolution than another seismic image generated independent from using the value of the quality factor Q;
• and
• generating, based on the seismic image, a map of the subsurface formations.