Compressing data collected downhole in a wellbore

A method for transmitting data from a downhole location to the earth's surface, the method comprising:

• conveying a drilling assembly to the downhole location, the drilling assembly including a drill bit to penetrate an earth formation and one or more sensors;
• sensing, with the one or more sensors, sensor data downhole, the sensor data comprising one or more images, wherein the one or more images comprise a first data value set associated with a first data value set label and a second data value set associated with a second data value set label, wherein the first data value set label and the second data value set label refer to at least one of:
• (i) an operating frequency of the one or more sensors;
• and (ii) a transmitter-receiver distance of the one or more sensors;
• compressing, with a first processor in the drilling assembly, the one or more images by a video compression technique to generate compressed data;
• transmitting, with a telemetry system in the drilling assembly, the compressed data from the downhole location to the earth's surface;
• decompressing, with a second processor at the earth's surface, the compressed data by a video decompression technique to generate decompressed data values;
• and
• controlling the drilling assembly based on the decompressed data values.

A system for transmitting data from a downhole location to the earth's surface, the system comprising:

• a drilling assembly at the downhole location, the drilling assembly including a drill bit to penetrate an earth formation;
• one or more sensors in the drilling assembly, the one or more sensors configured to sense sensor data downhole, the sensor data comprising a plurality of data value sets, wherein the plurality of data value sets comprise a first data value set associated with a first data value set label and a second data value set associated with a second data value set label, wherein the first data value set label and the second data value set label refer to at least one of:
• (i) an operating frequency of the one or more sensors;
• and (ii) a transmitter-receiver distance of the one or more sensors;
• a first processor in the drilling assembly, the first processor configured to assign at least one data value of each of the plurality of data value sets to each of a plurality of time levels or depth levels to generate a data block and to compress the data block by a block-based compression technique to generate compressed data;
• a telemetry system in the drilling assembly configured to transmit the compressed data from the downhole location to the earth's surface;
• and
• a second processor at the earth's surface configured to decompress the compressed data to generate decompressed data values and to assign each of the decompressed data values to a surface depth level to generate a depth-based data block.

A system for transmitting data from a downhole location to the earth's surface, the system comprising:

• a drilling assembly at the downhole location, the drilling assembly including a drill bit to penetrate an earth formation;
• one or more sensors configured to sense sensor data downhole, the sensor data comprising one or more images, wherein the one or more images comprise a first data value set associated with a first data value set label and a second data value set associated with a second data value set label, wherein the first data value set label and the second data value set label refer to at least one of:
• (i) an operating frequency of the one or more sensors;
• and (ii) a transmitter-receiver distance of the one or more sensors;
• a first processor in the drilling assembly, the first processor configured to compress the one or more images by a video compression technique to generate compressed data;
• a telemetry system in the drilling assembly, configured to transmit the compressed data from the downhole location to the earth's surface;
• and
• a second processor at the earth's surface configured to decompress the compressed data by a video decompression technique to generate decompressed data values and to assign each of the decompressed data values to a surface depth level to generate a depth-based data block.