Separation of seismic sources by joint interpolation and deblending

A tangible, non-transitory, machine-readable media, comprising instructions configured to cause a processor to:

• access at least a portion of a blended seismic source survey, wherein the blended source seismic survey containing blended seismic data and that corresponds to at least two interfering seismic source excitation groups, wherein the seismic source excitations are produced by at least two seismic source groups comprising a first source group and a second source group;
• produce unblended seismic data by iteratively performing an interpolation and deblending operation on the blended seismic data in which the processor is caused to:
• estimate both first unblended signals and second unblended signals different from the first unblended signals, from the blended seismic data by applying a mask to the blended seismic data to filter from the first unblended signals cross-talk from any seismic source group of the at least two seismic source groups unrelated to the first unblended signals and to filter from the second unblended signals cross-talk from any seismic source group of the at least two seismic source groups unrelated to the second unblended signals;
• and
• predict at least a portion of weak-coherence signals caused by the at least two interfering seismic source excitation groups based on a portion of the blended seismic source survey in which the least two interfering seismic source excitation groups overlap above a threshold amount;
• produce at least two separate source gather groups based at least in part on the unblended seismic data, wherein the at least two separate source gather groups are respectively associated with the data sets that are non-overlapping or overlapping within the same source excitation group;
• and
• transmit the at least two separate source gathers for use in generating a seismic image, wherein the seismic image represents hydrocarbons in a subsurface region of Earth or subsurface drilling hazards and is used to identify the hydrocarbons within the subsurface region of Earth and determine a path along which to drill into the Earth to explore for the identified hydrocarbons.

A device, comprising:

• a memory storing instructions;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory and configured to execute the instructions, which cause the processor to:
• access at least a portion of a blended seismic source survey containing blended seismic data, wherein the blended source seismic survey corresponds to at least two interfering seismic source excitation groups, wherein the seismic source excitations are produced by at least two seismic source groups comprising a first source group and a second source group;
• produce unblended seismic data by iteratively performing an interpolation and deblending operation on the blended seismic data in which the processor is caused to:
• estimates both first unblended signals and second unblended signals, different from the first unblended signals, from the blended seismic data by applying a mask to the blended seismic data to filter from the first unblended signals cross-talk from any seismic source group of the at least two seismic source groups unrelated to the first unblended signals and to filter from the second unblended signals cross-talk from any seismic source group of the at least two seismic source groups unrelated to the second unblended signals;
• and
• predicts at least a portion of weak-coherence signals caused by the at least two interfering seismic source excitation groups based on a portion of the blended seismic source survey in which the least two interfering seismic source excitation groups overlap above a threshold amount;
• produce at least two source gather groups based on the unblended seismic data, wherein the at least two source gather groups are respectively associated with the data sets that are non-overlapping or overlapping within the same source excitation group;
• and
• transmit the at least two source gathers for use in generating a seismic image, wherein the seismic image represents hydrocarbons in a subsurface region of Earth or subsurface drilling hazards and is used to identify the hydrocarbons within the subsurface region of Earth and determine a path along which to drill into the Earth to explore for the identified hydrocarbons.