Instantaneous attributes: the what and the how *
Tadeusz Ulrych 1 5 Mauricio Sacchi 2 Mike Graul 3 M. Turhan Taner 41 Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of B.C., Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
2 Department of Physics, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
3 Texseis Inc., Houston, Texas, USA.
4 RockSolid Images, Houston, Texas, USA.
5 Corresponding author. Email: ulrych@eos.ubc.ca
Exploration Geophysics 38(4) 213-219 https://doi.org/10.1071/EG07023
Submitted: 4 August 2007 Accepted: 14 September 2007 Published: 6 December 2007
Abstract
Since their introduction by Nigel Anstey and Tury Taner in the 1970s, attributes have become an integral tool in the interpreter’s arsenal. At present, as emphasised by Taner, no direct relationships have been established between all attributes and physical and geological characteristics of the subsurface. Their discriminatory properties, however, allow very useful classifications to be performed. This paper deals with various attribute-related issues.
First, we consider the theoretical and physical aspects concerning instantaneous attributes, particularly instantaneous phase. This attribute is of central importance since it describes the location of events in the seismic trace and leads to the computation of other instantaneous quantities. Second, we deal with the issue of information content. It has often been implied that attributes convey no more information than that present in the original seismic trace from which they are derived. This, however, is akin to claiming that David contains no more information than the raw marble from which Michelangelo freed him. A seismic attribute section provides that much more information. The attribute in time attempts to enhance resolution, whereas the attribute property in the spatial dimension emphasises continuity. These important and interesting issues will be dealt with theoretically and by example. Finally, we present and illustrate by synthetic and real data examples, a novel, hybrid attribute which has been constructed to provide high resolution information. We must point out that, as is always the case, our attribute is dependent on the phase of the source wavelet.
Key words: seismic processing, seismic interpretation, attributes, instantaneous attributes.
Barnes, A., 2006, Too many seismic attributes?: CSEG Recorder 31, 41–45.
Zhang, C., and Ulrych, T. J., 2002, Estimation of quality factors from cmp records: Geophysics 67, 1542–1547.
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* Presented at the 19th ASEG Geophysical Conference & Exhibition, November 2007.
1 Credit for the PLA is usually ascribed to Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis who wrote about it in 1744. There is evidence, however, that Leibnitz wrote about the PLA in 1705. [Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org].
2 Hamilton’s principle is an extremum. Physical processes obey this principle by minimising action, e.g., least time (Fermat’s principle), minimum energy configurations, minimum configurational entropy etc. Humans also obey this extremum principle, however, apparently by maximising action, maximum profit, maximum use of energy, maximum misinformation and, in the last half a century, maximum CO2.
3 An elegant example of the application of Hamilton’s principle is the formulation of Biot’s ‘slow’ waves by Russell (1996).
4 The reader should take note of the fact that MATLAB provides an image of COCO, the clown.