A group of techniques can be used to determine if components of a seismic spread have deviated from a planned path during a coil or other curved and substantially circular acquisition pattern. In one aspect, and in general, the presently disclosed techniques include a computer-readable program storage medium for determining the deviation of spread array element from a planned curved path during a towed-array marine seismic survey. The method comprises: determining a nominal position of the spread array element at a given point in the planned curved path; determining the actual position of the spread array element; and performing an error analysis predicated on the nominal and actual positions.

A method for generating an improved stack from wide azimuth data. This is accomplished by displaying gather traces in a geometrically sensible way that depends on gather and processing type. Once a gather is available in such a manner, a geoscientist can use various geometric or freehand shapes to indicate which traces from the gather to stack and which to ignore. Given sufficient computing power, this can be done interactively, allowing a geoscientist to determine a set of traces that create an optimal stack at a single location in the output cube. Multiple locations can be improved in this manner and a final stack can be generated that contains a blended agglomeration of all of the improvements.

Techniques are disclosed relating to configuring a marine seismic survey. In some embodiments, a vessel may be coupled to one or more seismic sources and one or more seismic streamers, and a second vessel may be coupled to one or more far offset seismic sources. The near offset sources may be configured to actuate according to a shot point interval; the far offset sources may be configured to actuate according to a longer shot point interval. In some embodiments, the longer shot point interval may be a multiple of the near offset source shot point interval. Determining the first and second shot point intervals may be based in part on, for example, the wave frequencies of the far offset sources, the requirements of a full wave inversion process, or various configurational parameters of seismic surveys.

Methods and systems for efficiently acquiring towed streamer marine seismic data are described. One method and system comprises positioning a plurality of source-only tow vessels and one or more source-streamer tow vessels to acquire a wide- and/or full-azimuth seismic survey without need for the spread to repeat a path once traversed. Another method and system allows surveying a sub-sea geologic feature using a marine seismic spread, the spread smartly negotiating at least one turn during the surveying, and shooting and recording during the turn. This abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract, allowing a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

A method may include receiving, via a processor, a first set of seismic data acquired via a Wide Azimuth (WAZ) survey. The method may also include receiving a second set of seismic data acquired via an Ocean Bottom Survey (OBS) simultaneously during a time period in which the first set of seismic data is acquired. The method may then involve processing the second set of data to obtain a velocity model of seismic waves for an area that corresponds to the WAZ survey and OBS and generating one or more seismic images of the area based on the velocity model and the first set of data.

A system and method for acquiring seismic streamer data is provided. Embodiments may include performing a marine seismic survey using an unmanned marine vessel having a power source configured to drive and provide propulsion to the unmanned marine vessel. Embodiments may further include acquiring one or more of long and ultra-long seismic survey data using a multi-dimensional seismic sensor array coupled with the unmanned marine vessel and providing the seismic survey data as a reduced data set that includes long and ultra long offsets.

Provided in some embodiments are systems and associated methods for regularizing seismic data. Embodiment include obtaining non-uniformly sampled seismic data (e.g., generated by real seismic sensor array having an un-even distribution of real seismic sensors physically positioned proximate a subsurface formation), interpolating the non-uniformly sampled seismic data (e.g., using a Lagrange interpolation or non-linear interpolation) to generate regularized seismic data representing a regular distribution of seismic sensors, and generating, using the regularized seismic data, a seismic image of the subsurface formation.