Method and system for accessing a virtual seismic cube

A system, comprising:

• a memory device;
• a seismic cube index stored in the memory device and comprising a plurality of index entries, a first entry of the plurality of index entries comprising:
• a virtual location of a first section,
• a first storage location of the first section;
• and
• a mapping parameter for mapping virtual locations in a seismic cube to data locations in the first section, wherein the seismic cube is a set of seismic data elements specified for each portion of a continuous geographic region that specifies a position of each data element in the continuous geographic region;
• and
• a computer processor;
• a seismic cube index application, executing on the computer processor, and configured to:
• receive a first read request to read a first portion of the seismic cube, the first read request comprising a virtual location of the first portion, wherein the virtual location is a geographic identifier of the first portion defined in relation to the seismic cube as a whole;
• query, using the virtual location of the first portion, the seismic cube index to obtain the mapping parameter and the first storage location of the first section having the first portion, wherein the first section is identified using the virtual location of the first section and the virtual location of the first portion;
• calculate, using the mapping parameter, a first data location in the first section corresponding to the virtual location of the first portion;
• and
• transmit a second read request to the first storage location of the first section, the second read request comprising the first data location.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions for processing requests for seismic data, the executable instructions comprising functionality to:

• receive, from a requestor, a first read request to read a first portion of a seismic cube, the first read request comprising a virtual location of the first portion,
• wherein the seismic cube is a set of seismic data elements specified for each portion of a geographic region that specifies a position of each data element in the geographic region, and
• wherein the virtual location is a geographic identifier of the first portion defined in relation to the seismic cube;
• query a seismic cube index to obtain a mapping parameter and a first storage location of a first section including the first portion of the seismic cube, the mapping parameter mapping virtual locations in the seismic cube with data locations in the first section, wherein the first section is identified using the virtual location of the first portion;
• calculate, with a computer processor and using the mapping parameter, a first data location in the first section corresponding to the virtual location of the first portion;
• and
• transmit a second read request to the first storage location of the first section, wherein the second read request comprises the first data location, wherein the requestor receives the first portion from the first storage location;
• receive, from the requestor, a write request for writing resultant seismic data to seismic cube, the write request comprising a virtual location of a second portion of the seismic cube;
• query, using the virtual location of the second portion, the seismic cube index to identify a second section having the second portion;
• select a second storage location for storing a new section of seismic cube;
• store, in the second storage location, the resultant seismic data as the new section;
• update the seismic cube index to reflect that the second portion is stored in the second storage location;
• and
• update the seismic cube index to indicate, for the second section, that a new version is created for the second portion.