Separation of simultaneous sources using a structural-oriented median filter in the flattened dimension

• Published in: Computers & geosciences 2016-01, Vol.86, p.46-54
• Main Authors: Gan, Shuwei, Wang, Shoudong, Chen, Yangkang, Chen, Xiaohong, Xiang, Kui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attenuation; Blending; Flattening; Freeware; Mathematical analysis; Noise; Plane-wave destruction; Scanning; Simultaneous sources; Slopes; Structural-oriented median filter; Velocity slope transformation
• ISSN: 0098-3004; 1873-7803
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cageo.2015.10.001

Simultaneous-source shooting can help tremendously shorten the acquisition period and improve the quality of seismic data for better subsalt seismic imaging, but at the expense of introducing strong interference (blending noise) to the acquired seismic data. We propose to use a structural-oriented median filter to attenuate the blending noise along the structural direction of seismic profiles. The principle of the proposed approach is to first flatten the seismic record in local spatial windows and then to apply a traditional median filter (MF) to the third flattened dimension. The key component of the proposed approach is the estimation of the local slope, which can be calculated by first scanning the NMO velocity and then transferring the velocity to the local slope. Both synthetic and field data examples show that the proposed approach can successfully separate the simultaneous-source data into individual sources. We provide an open-source toy example to better demonstratethe proposed methodology. •We propose a novel structural-oriented median filter to attenuate the blending noise.•We flatten the seismic record in local spatial windows followed by MF in flattened dimension.•The local slope can be accurately estimated from velocity-slope transformation.•Several simulated synthetic and field data examples show the successful performance.•An open-source toy example to better demonstrate the proposed methodology.