Methods for gathering marine geophysical data
AssigneePGS Geophysical AS
InventorsØyvind Hillesund, Stian Hegna
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a first embodiment the invention comprises a method for gathering geophysical data, including towing geophysical data gathering equipment behind a survey vessel in a body of water, said equipment including an array of sensor streamers extending behind said vessel, and determining a geodetic location of a streamer steering reference point at a forward end of the sensor streamers and a reference direction. At least one sensor streamer included in said array of sensor streamers is laterally deflected in response to the determined geodetic location of said streamer steering reference point and the determined reference direction.
Claims20
A method for gathering geophysical data, comprising:
- towing geophysical data gathering equipment behind a survey vessel in a body of water, the equipment including an array of sensor streamers extending behind the vessel;
- determining a geodetic location of a first steering reference point at a forward end of the sensor streamers;
- determining a reference direction relative to the first steering reference point;
- and
- laterally deflecting at least one sensor streamer included in the array of sensor streamers, wherein the laterally deflecting is based on the determined geodetic location of the first steering reference point and the determined reference direction, and wherein the laterally deflecting is based on a desired streamer geometry in which:
- at least a portion of the at least one sensor streamer is positioned at a selected angle relative to the determined reference direction;
- and
- a point on the at least a portion of the at least one sensor streamer is positioned at a selected offset from the first steering reference point in a direction perpendicular to the reference direction.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a computing device to perform operations comprising:
- determining a geodetic location of a first steering reference point at a forward end of an array of sensor streamers, wherein the array is included in geophysical data gathering equipment towed behind a survey vessel in a body of water;
- determining a reference direction, wherein the reference direction is different than a direction of travel of the first steering reference point;
- and
- laterally deflecting at least one sensor streamer included in the array of sensor streamers, wherein the laterally deflecting is based on the determined geodetic location of the first steering reference point and the determined reference direction.
A system, comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- one or more memories having program instructions stored thereon that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the system to perform operations comprising:
- determining a geodetic location of a first steering reference point at a forward end of an array of sensor streamers, wherein the array is included in geophysical data gathering equipment towed behind a survey vessel in a body of water;
- determining a reference direction relative to the first steering reference point;
- laterally deflecting at least one sensor streamer included in the array of sensor streamers, wherein the laterally deflecting is based on the determined geodetic location of the first steering reference point and the determined reference direction;
- and
- steering the survey vessel to cause the first steering reference point to follow a preselected travel path.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.