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US 6,775,620 B1Granted
Method of locating a surface in a three dimensional volume of seismic data
AssigneeSeismic Micro-Technology, Inc.
InventorRobert Allison Baker, III
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The method of the present invention relates to the field of seismic data interpretation for the purpose of locating a surface in a three dimensional volume of seismic data. The present invention applies mathematical gridding to the location of surfaces in a volume.
Claims20
A method of locating a surface in a three dimensional volume of data indicative of surface characteristics, comprising:
- a. transmitting an acoustic signal into the earth;
- b. receiving a multiplicity of reflected acoustic signals from the earth, resulting from the prior transmitting step with a receiver array comprising at least three non-colinear receivers which define a grid of trace locations having an x axis dimension and a y axis dimension perpendicular to the x axis dimension to further define a set of trace locations, {xi, yi};
- c. recording the amplitude of each reflected acoustic signal as a function of time to construct a seismic volume comprising a seismic trace for each recorded acoustic signal and wherein the seismic volume comprises a time axis dimension, t, that measures the time of each reflected acoustic signal, wherein the t axis dimension is perpendicular to the x axis and y axis dimensions;
- d. selecting an amplitude characteristic of interest for the seismic volume;
- e. for at least three distinct (x, y) grid locations in the seismic volume, locating the selected amplitude characteristic of interest in time to produce a set of picked points, {xj, yj, tj}, where {xj, yj} is a subset of {xi, yi};
- f. for at least one trace location (xi, yi) in the volume, determining a set of grid coordinates {xi, yi, ti} by calculating a time value ti based upon the set {xj, yj, tj} and the location (xi, yi);
- g. storing the set of coordinates {xi, yi, ti} determined in step (f);
- h. selecting a grid location (xi, yi) in a first autopicking direction;
- i. determining the value of ti at the selected grid location from the data stored in step (g);
- j. locating an amplitude characteristic of interest at the grid location that is within a preselected distance of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- k. determining whether the amplitude characteristic of interest located in step (j) meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- and
- l. storing the location of each amplitude characteristic of interest that meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i).
10 more elements
A method of locating a surface in a three dimensional volume of data indicative of surface characteristics, comprising:
- a. transmitting an acoustic signal into the earth;
- b. receiving a multiplicity of reflected acoustic signals from the earth, resulting from the prior transmitting step with an N×M receiver array comprising at least four non-colinear receivers which define a grid of trace locations having an x axis dimension and a y axis dimension perpendicular to the x axis dimension to further define a set of trace locations, {xi, yi};
- c. recording the amplitude of each reflected acoustic signal as a function of time to construct a seismic volume comprising a seismic trace for each recorded acoustic signal and wherein the seismic volume comprises a time axis dimension, t, that measures the time of each reflected acoustic signal, wherein the t axis dimension is perpendicular to the x axis and y axis dimensions;
- d. selecting an amplitude characteristic of interest for the seismic volume;
- e. for at least three distinct (x, y) grid locations in the seismic volume, locating the selected amplitude characteristic of interest in time to produce a set of picked points, {xj, yj, tj}, where {xj, yj} is a subset {xi, yi};
- f. for at least one trace location (xi, yi) in the volume, determining a set of grid coordinates {xi, yi, ti} by calculating a time value ti based upon the set {xj, yj, tj} and the location (xi, yi);
- g. storing the set of coordinates {xi, yi, ti} determined in step (f);
- h. selecting a grid location (xi, yi) in a first autopicking direction;
- i. determining the value of ti at the selected grid location from the data stored in step (g);
- j. locating an amplitude characteristic of interest at the grid location that is within a preselected distance of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- k. determining whether the amplitude characteristic of interest located in step (j) meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- and
- l. storing the location of each amplitude characteristic of interest that meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i).
10 more elements
A method of locating a surface in a three dimensional volume of data indicative of surface characteristics, comprising:
- a. transmitting an acoustic signal into the earth;
- b. receiving a multiplicity of reflected acoustic signals from the earth, resulting from the prior transmitting step with a receiver array comprising at least three non-colinear receivers which define a grid of trace locations having an x axis dimension and a y axis dimension perpendicular to the x axis dimension to further define a set of trace locations, {xi, yi};
- c. recording the amplitude of each reflected acoustic signal as a function of time to construct a seismic volume comprising a seismic trace for each recorded acoustic signal and wherein the seismic volume comprises a time axis dimension, t, that measures the time of each reflected acoustic signal, wherein the t axis dimension is perpendicular to the x axis and y axis dimensions;
- d. selecting an amplitude characteristic of interest for the seismic volume from the group consisting of a peak, a trough and a zero crossing;
- e. for at least three distinct (x, y) grid locations in the seismic volume, locating the selected amplitude characteristic of interest in time to produce a set of picked points, {xj, yj, tj}, where {xj, yj} is a subset {xi, yi};
- f. for at least one trace location (xi, yi) in the volume, determining a set of grid coordinates {xi, yi, ti} by calculating a time value ti based upon the set {xj, yj, tj} and the location (xi, yi);
- g. storing the set of coordinates {xi, yi, ti} calculated in step (f);
- h. selecting a grid location (xi, yi) in a first autopicking direction;
- i. determining the value of ti at the selected grid location from the data stored in step (f);
- j. locating an amplitude characteristic of interest at the grid location that is within a preselected distance of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- k. determining whether the amplitude characteristic of interest located in step (j) meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- l. storing the location of each amplitude characteristic of interest that meets a predetermined selection criterion of the value of ti determined in step (i);
- and
- m. plotting a surface comprising the stored amplitude characteristics of interest.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.