Horizontal resolution of seismic acquisition geometries

Abstract

Spatial sampling has a crucial influence on the horizontal resolution of seismic imaging, but how to quantify the influence is still controversial especially in complex media. Most of the studies on horizontal resolution focus on the measurement of wavelet widths for seismic migration, but neglect to evaluate the effect of side-lobe perturbations on spatial resolution. The side-lobe effect, as a migration noise, is important for seismic imaging in complex media. In this article, with focal beam analysis, we define two parameters to represent the horizontal resolution of an acquisition geometry: the width of the main lobe (WML) along the inline and crossline directions and the ratio of the main-lobe amplitude to the total amplitude (RMT) in a focal beam. We provide examples of typical acquisition geometries to show that how spatial sampling affects the horizontal resolution, measured in terms of WML and RMT values. WML defines the horizontal resolution to image the target, whereas RMT describes the clarity of the imaging. Migration noise reduces with increasing RMT, indirectly improving both the vertical and horizontal resolutions of seismic imaging. Case studies of seismic migration with 3D seismic data demonstrate how the acquisition geometries with different WML and RMT values influence the performance of seismic imaging. A prior WML and RMT analysis to predict the quality of acquired datasets can optimize acquisition geometries before the implementation of seismic acquisition.