A method for modelling and migrating seismic data, that includes using an acoustic wave equation and a spatial distribution of one or more earth-model parameters. The acoustic wave equation is modified by including at least one secondary source term, and based on a seismic acquisition configuration, either calculating the seismic signals that would be detected from the modelled wavefield or migrating observed seismic signals or migrating residual signals as part of an inversion.

A method for estimating all five transversely-isotropic (TI)-elastic constants using borehole sonic data obtained from at least one subterranean borehole in a transversely isotropic formation. In an embodiment, the method includes: solving for a quasi-compressional qP-wave velocity V.sub.qP using inversion algorithms based on exact solutions of the Kelvin-Christoffel equations for plane wave velocities in arbitrarily anisotropic formations, where the five TI-elastic constants may include C.sub.11, C.sub.13, C.sub.33, C.sub.55, and C.sub.66.

A method for determining and tracking an edge of first breaks is provided. The method includes obtaining seismic data associated with subsurface formations, the seismic data relating to a vibration contacting a plurality of portions of the subsurface formations, processing the seismic data to produce processed seismic data comprising one or more attributes, wherein the processed seismic data defines an edge characterizing a plurality of onset times, iteratively performing, using a level sets algorithm, a plurality of tracking operations on the processed seismic data to identify the edge characterizing a plurality of first breaks' onset times, and determining the edge as first breaks.

Embodiments deal with a method, a computer program as well as an apparatus for detecting one or more objects in the sea floor. The method comprises obtaining a receiver signal. The receiver signal is based on a scattering of multiple acoustic signals at the one or more objects in the sea floor. The receiver signal is generated by a plurality of receivers. The method further comprises grouping portions of the receiver signal to points of a detection grid. The detection grid represents a grid at the points of which the one or more objects are being localized. The method further comprises performing a travel time correction of the portions of the receiver signal with respect to the points of the detection grid. The method further comprises combining the travel time corrected portions of the receiver signal at the points of the detection grid. The method further comprises detecting the one or more objects at the points of the detection grid based on the combination of the travel time corrected portions of the receiver signal. The detection of the one or more objects is based on the scattering of the multiple acoustic signals at the one or more objects.

A method for generating a high-resolution pseudo-reflectivity image of a subsurface region includes receiving seismic data associated with a subsurface region and captured by one or more seismic receivers, constructing a velocity model of the subsurface region based on the received seismic data, performing a seismic migration of the received seismic data based on the constructed velocity model to obtain migrated seismic data, computing polarized normal vectors associated with one or more subsurface reflectors of the subsurface region based on the migrated seismic data, and generating a pseudo-reflectivity image of the subsurface region based on both the computed polarized normal vectors.

A method is disclosed that includes obtaining a seismic data set and a seismic wave propagation velocity model and approximating the seismic wave propagation velocity model as a plurality of layers each bounded by a first and second bounding depth. For each of the plurality of layers, the method includes: simulation of the propagation of a seismic wave through the layer using a two-way seismic wave propagation simulator; forming an over-determined system of linear equations relating at least one mono-frequency component of the seismic wave at the first depth to one mono-frequency component at the second depth; and determining a plurality of one-way seismic wave propagation operators by inverting the over-determined system of linear equations. The method further includes processing the seismic data set using the one-way seismic wave propagation. A system and a non-transitory computer readable medium for implementing the method are also disclosed.

A method, article and system are provided for processing and interpreting acoustic data. The method and system includes providing a number of acoustic processing elements, each element being associated with an acoustic mode of a number of acoustic modes of a sonic measurement tool adapted to acquire data representing acoustic measurements in a borehole. In addition the method and system includes providing a user interface to organize a processing chain of the number of acoustic processing elements such that the acoustic processing elements process the acquired data according to a predefined workflow.

A computer-implemented method and computing system apparatus programmed to perform operations of the computer-implemented method for obtaining a subsurface stack image, subsurface angle gathers, and a subsurface velocity model over an entire survey region having high velocity contrast geo-bodies. Particularly, user inputs, input velocity models, and surface-seismic data are obtained by fixed source and receiver pairs and then used by the computer program product embedded within the computing system apparatus to minimize the number of iterations, required to obtain a final velocity model, a final stack image, and final angle gathers wherein their flatness deviation is equal to, or less than, a user-defined flatness value. Therefore, the attributes developed by said computer-implemented method and system can help solve the imaging problem of sub high velocity contrast geo-bodies like subsalt, or salt overhung deep mini basins.

Systems and methods for modeling dispersion curves are disclosed. The method includes obtaining an acoustic dataset along a well that accesses a hydrocarbon reservoir. The method further includes determining a set of depth windows along the well and determining a first subset of dispersion curves for a first subset of depth windows using a dispersion model. The method still further includes initializing a second subset of dispersion curves for a second subset of depth windows using a nearest neighbor search of the first subset of dispersion curves. The method still further includes determining slowness-frequency pairs for the second subset of depth windows using the acoustic dataset and updating the second subset of dispersion curves using a recursive scanning method. The method still further includes characterizing rock properties near the well based, at least in part, on the first subset of dispersion curves and the second subset of dispersion curves.

Methods and systems for determining a drilling-induced rock damage map are disclosed. The method includes obtaining a sonic dataset, including sonic waveforms recorded at a plurality of source-receiver separations for a plurality of source positions along an axis of a wellbore. The method further includes determining a log of a first metric using the sonic dataset and determining a map of a second metric using the sonic dataset. The method still further includes determining the drilling-induced rock damage map based, at least in part, on the log of the first metric and the map of the second metric.