Downhole data transmission and surface synchronization

A telemetry method for transmitting data from a downhole location to a surface location, the method comprising:

• (a) acquiring downhole measurements while drilling a subterranean well;
• (b) causing a downhole processor to process the downhole measurements using a frame building algorithm to compute a digital data stream for transmission to the surface;
• (c) detecting a downhole event that requires a change to the digital data stream;
• (d) causing the downhole processor to process the downhole event detected in (c) in combination with a predefined event database to modify the frame building algorithm.
• (e) causing the downhole processor to process the downhole measurements using the frame building algorithm modified in (d) to compute a modified digital data stream;
• (f) adding synchronization markers to the modified data stream computed in (e) to obtain a synchronized data stream, the synchronization markers identifying the downhole event detected in (c);
• (g) transmitting the synchronized data stream to the surface location using a downhole telemetry tool;
• (h) receiving the synchronized data stream at the surface location to obtain a decoded data stream;
• (i) causing a surface processor to process the synchronization markers to identify the downhole event detected in (c);
• (j) causing the surface processor to process the event detected in (c) in combination with a predefined event database to modify the frame building algorithm;
• and
• (k) causing the surface processor to process the decoded data stream using the frame building algorithm modified in (j) to obtain the downhole measurements.