Method for determining adequacy of seismic data coverage of a subsurface area being surveyed and its application to selecting sensor array geometry

A method for marine seismic surveying, comprising:

• towing a plurality of seismic sensors disposed on a plurality of seismic streamers in a body of water;
• actuating a seismic energy source in the body of water at selected times;
• detecting seismic signals at the seismic sensors resulting from the actuation of the seismic energy source;
• creating a seismic data trace for each of the detected signals;
• determining at least one Fresnel zone for at least some of the seismic data traces;
• computing a contribution of each of the seismic data traces to each one of a plurality of bins defined in a predetermined pattern, each contribution based on the Fresnel zone associated with each seismic data trace;
• based on the computed contributions, determining a maximum lateral distance between longitudinally corresponding seismic sensors on each streamer that will result in a contribution sum in each bin exceeding a selected threshold;
• and
• at least one of storing and displaying the maximum lateral distance.