Method to calculate acquisition illumination

Abstract

New methods for calculating acquisition illumination are computationally less expensive in comparison with conventional methods. In one such new method, source wavefield propagations are calculated and assigned to corresponding zero-offset receivers. Further, the number of non-zero-offset receivers within the coverage of the shot at the source location is decimated. Such a method is most advantages in reverse time migration, in which all source wavefield propagations are already calculated. The receiver-side illumination for each shot can be obtained by summing up all the source-side illumination with the source located within receiver coverage. All the source-side illumination and receiver-side illumination can be summed up to get the acquisition illumination for the survey. The acquisition illumination can be used to value the acquisition system and to compensate the migration images.

Claims

1. A method for obtaining seismic acquisition illumination, comprising: placing a plurality of source locations and a plurality of receivers in a survey field, wherein the plurality of receivers comprise one or more zero-offset receivers, each zero-offset receiver is placed at one of the plurality of source locations; deploying a plurality of shots in the survey field, each shot is deployed at one of the plurality of source locations and generates seismic waves that cover a volume of earth formation; collecting seismic signals from the volume of the earth formation using the plurality of receivers; calculating a source wavefield propagation for each of the plurality of source locations; calculating an illumination of each of the plurality of source locations according to the following equation:
D.sub.s.sub.iG.sub.s.sub.i.sup.2*.sub.j=1.sup.Ns.sup.i(G.sub.s.sub.j.sup.2), wherein D.sub.s.sub.i is the illumination for shot number i among the plurality of shots, G.sub.si is the wavefield propagation of the source location at which shot number i is deployed, Ns.sub.i is the number of source locations positioned in the volume of earth formation, and G.sub.sj is the wavefield propagation of each source location positioned in the volume of earth formation; and summing up illuminations of all of the plurality of source locations to obtain an illumination of the survey field, wherein the illumination of the survey field is used to improve images outputted from a reverse time migration (RTM) process.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the source wavefield propagation is represented by a Green's function.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the source wavefield propagation for each of the plurality of source locations are simulated during reverse time migration (RTM) of seismic signals.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the shot is generated by an explosive, a gas gun, an air guns, a weight drop mechanisms, or a vibrator system.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiver is a geophone or a hydrophone.

6. A method for obtaining seismic acquisition illumination, comprising: placing a plurality of source locations and a plurality of receivers in a survey field, wherein the plurality of receivers comprise one or more zero-offset receivers, each zero-offset receiver is placed at one of the plurality of source locations; deploying a plurality of shots in the survey field, each shot is deployed at one of the plurality of source locations and generates seismic waves that cover a volume of earth formation; collecting seismic signals from the volume of earth formation using the plurality of receivers; applying one or more decimation factors to the plurality of receivers to obtained a set of decimated receivers; calculating a wavefield propagation for each of the set of decimated receivers; calculating an illumination of each of the plurality of source locations according to the following equation: $D_{s_i}{G}_{s_i}^2*\underset{j=1}{\overset{\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}}{.Math.}}\left(G_{r_j}^2\right)$ wherein D.sub.s.sub.i is an illumination for shot number i among the plurality of shots, the volume of earth formation has a grid size (Nx, Ny, Nz) in the xyz coordinate system, G.sub.si and G.sub.rj are respectively the wavefield propagation of the source location at which shot number i is deployed and the wavefield propagation of the receivers in the volume of earth formation, Nr.sub.i is a total number of receivers located in the volume of earth formation, m.sub.x and m.sub.y are decimation factors in X- and Y- directions, respectively; and summing up illuminations of all of the plurality of source locations to obtain an illumination of the survey field, wherein the illumination of the survey field is used to improve images outputted from a reverse time migration (RTM) process.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein m.sub.x and m.sub.y are integers larger than one, provided that a value of $\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}$ is an integer of one or larger than one.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein $\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}$ equals a number of zero-offset receivers in the volume of earth formation.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the source wavefield propagation is represented by a Green's function.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the wavefield propagation for each of the plurality of source locations are simulated during reverse time migration (RTM) of seismic signals.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the shot is generated by an explosive, a gas gun, an air guns, a weight drop mechanisms, or a vibrator system.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the receiver is a geophone or a hydrophone.

13. A method for calculating seismic acquisition illumination, comprising: conducting a seismic survey to collect seismic signals from a survey field, wherein the seismic survey deploys a plurality of shots at a corresponding number of source locations; performing reverse time migration (RTM) of seismic signals collected in the seismic survey; obtaining a wavefield propagation for each of the plurality of source locations; assigning the wavefield propagation for each of the plurality of source locations to be the wavefield propagation for a zero-offset receiver located at a corresponding source location; calculating an illumination of each of the plurality of source locations according to the following equation: $D_{s_i}{G}_{s_i}^2*\underset{j=1}{\overset{\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}}{.Math.}}\left(G_{r_j}^2\right)$ wherein D.sub.si is an illumination for shot number i among the plurality of shots, the volume of earth formation has a grid size (Nx, Ny, Nz) in the xyz coordinate system, G.sub.si and G.sub.rj are respectively the wavefield propagation of the source location at which shot number i is deployed and the wavefield propagation of the receivers in the volume of earth formation, Nr.sub.i is a total number of receivers located in the volume of earth formation, m.sub.x and m.sub.y are decimation factors in X and Y directions, respectively; and summing up illuminations of all of the plurality of source locations to obtain an illumination of the survey field.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein m.sub.x, and m.sub.y are integers larger than one, provided that a value of $\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}$ is an integer of one or larger than one.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein $\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}$ is a number of source locations in the volume of earth formation.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the source wavefield propagation is represented by a Green's function.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the wavefield propagation for each of the number of source locations in the 3D volume is obtained from the reverse time migration.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1a is the source and receiver location map for a single shot in a typical seismic acquisition system.

(2) FIG. 1b is the sectional view of the A-A plane in FIG. 1a, showing the positional relations among the source, the receivers, and the subsurface structure in a formation under investigation.

(3) FIG. 2 is the source location map for all the shots in a seismic acquisition system.

(4) FIG. 3 is the source and receiver location map for all the shots in a seismic acquisition system.

(5) FIG. 4 is the source and decimated receiver location map for a single shot in a seismic acquisition system.

(6) FIG. 5 is the source and decimated receiver location map for all the shots in a seismic acquisition system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(7) The present disclosure provides a method involving steps that may be described and implemented in the general context of a system and computer methods to be executed by a computer. Such computer-executable instructions may include programs, routines, objects, components, data structures, and computer software technologies that can be used to perform particular tasks and process abstract data types. Software implementations of the present disclosure may be coded in different languages for application in a variety of computing platforms and environments. It will be appreciated that the scope and underlying principles of the present disclosure are not limited to any particular computer software technology.

(8) Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure may be practiced using any one or combination of hardware and software configurations, including but not limited to a system having single and/or multiple computer processors, hand-held devices, programmable consumer electronics, mini-computers, mainframe computers, and the like. The disclosure may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by servers or other processing devices that are linked through a one or more data communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

(9) The Figures (FIG.) and the following description relate to the embodiments of the present disclosure by way of illustration only. It should be noted that from the following discussion, alternative embodiments of the structures and methods disclosed herein will be readily recognized as viable alternatives that may be employed without departing from the principles of the claimed disclosures.

(10) Referring to the drawings, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described. Various embodiments can be implemented in numerous ways, including for example as a system (including a computer processing system), a method (including a computer implemented method), an apparatus, a non-transitory computer readable medium, a computer program product, a graphical user interface, a web portal, or a data structure tangibly fixed in a non-transitory computer readable memory. Several embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed below. The appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of the present disclosure and therefore are not to be considered limiting of its scope and breadth.

(11) Reference will now be made in detail to several embodiments of the present disclosure(s), examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying figures. It is noted that wherever practicable similar or like reference numbers may be used in the figures and may indicate similar or like functionality. The figures depict embodiments of the present disclosure for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the disclosure described herein.

(12) FIG. 1a schematically illustrates a map showing the source and the receivers for a single shot seismic acquisition. FIG. 1b is a sectional view along the A-A plane in FIG. 1a, showing one row of receivers and the source on the surface as well as a subsurface structure 101. Note that the source and one of the receivers are located in the same location. Such a receiver is a zero-offset receiver as its distance to the source is zero. The shot can be explosives, gas or air guns, weight drop mechanisms, vibrator systems, etc. The receivers, i.e., sensors, can be geophones for land survey or hydrophones for underwater survey.

(13) In a seismic acquisition, a shot is deployed at the source location, generating a wavefield that propagates from the source to the subsurface structure 101. The reflection from the subsurface structure 101 propagates back to the surface and is detected by the receivers, including the zero-offset receiver. The receivers convert the seismic signals to voltage signals. The voltage signals are then transmitted to a computer in a recording station (not shown) to be processed and converted into seismic data. The seismic data can be stored and transmitted, or further processed. Note that the wavefield generated by one shot covers a 3D volume and the reflection propagates to the receivers that cover that 3D volume.

(14) As such, seismic acquisition from a single shot collects seismic data from the 3D volume of earth formation that the seismic wave covers. A large number of such single shots are deployed at different source locations across the survey field, each covering its own specific 3D volume of earth formation so that a large volume of earth formation is investigated one specific 3D volume at one time.

(15) The acquisition illumination for a single shot can be calculated using source wavefield propagation. The source wavefield propagation can be represented by its Green's function. As such, the acquisition illumination can be defined as the square of the Green's function of source location multiply by the summation of the square of the Green's functions for all receivers. It can be expressed as equation (1):
D.sub.s.sub.i=G.sub.s.sub.i.sup.2*.sub.j=1.sup.Nr.sup.i(G.sub.r.sub.j.sup.2)(1)

(16) Here D.sub.s.sub.i is the illumination for a single shot that covers a 3D volume having a grid size (Nx, Ny, Nz) in a xyz coordinate system. This 3D volume can be viewed as a physical volume that the single shot covers as well as a data volume of seismic data collected from the physical volume. G.sub.s.sub.i is the Green's function of the source location of this 3D volume. G.sub.rj is the Green's function of a receiver in this same 3D volume, e.g., covering an area the size of NxNy. For a single shot, Nr.sub.i is the number of receivers used for the shot in the same 3D volume.

(17) FIG. 2 illustrates an array of (95) shots covering the survey area. An actual survey may involve thousands of shots. The acquisition illumination for the survey is defined as the summation of acquisition illuminations of all the shots. It can be written as:
D=.sub.i=1.sup.NsD.sub.s.sub.i(2)

(18) Here D is the acquisition illumination of the survey. Ns is the total number of shots deployed in the survey. The survey volume is the sum of all the 3D volumes covered by all the shots in the survey.

(19) A conventional acquisition illumination calculation simulates the Green's function for each source and receiver in the survey, then follows equations (1) and (2) to obtain the acquisition illumination.

(20) Typically a large number shots and associated receivers are employed in a survey. FIG. 3 illustrates a grid having the array of (95) sources and an array of (179) receivers. In this case, the interval between the receivers is twice as large the interval between the source locations. Note that each source location coincides with a zero-offset receiver.

(21) For a 900-square km survey, assuming one shot is deployed every 50 m in the X-direction and every 200 m in the Y-direction, and assuming a receiver interval of 25 m in both the X- and Y-directions, the total number of sources and receivers locations would be 1.44 million. Each shot generates 130,321 seismic traces. To obtain the acquisition illumination for the whole survey field using the conventional method illustrated in equations (1) and (2), the Green's function for each source and receiver are simulated. Assuming it takes 0.5 hrs to simulate one Green's function, it would take 50 servers 600 days to complete the acquisition illumination for the whole survey field, which is impractical.

(22) In an embodiment of the current disclosure, in order to reduce the computational time and cost, a decimation is applied in the calculation to reduce the receiver locations used in the calculation. The decimation may reduce the number of receiver locations in the X-direction, the Y-direction, or both. With decimated receivers, the acquisition illumination for a single shot can be calculated with much small number of receivers, as shown in equation (3):

(23) $\begin{array}{cc}{D}_{s_i}{G}_{s_i}^2*\underset{j=1}{\overset{\frac{\mathrm{Nri}}{\mathrm{mx}*\mathrm{my}}}{.Math.}}\left(G_{r_j}^2\right)& \left(3\right)\end{array}$

(24) Here D.sub.s.sub.i is the illumination for a single shot which is a 3D volume having a grid size (Nx, Ny, Nz) in the xyz coordinate system. G.sub.si and G.sub.rj are respectively the Green's functions of the source location and the Green's function of the receivers in the same 3D volume. Nr.sub.i is the total number of receivers in the same 3D volume. m.sub.x and m.sub.y are the decimation factors in X- and Y-directions, respectively.

(25) FIG. 4 illustrates an example in which the decimation factors m.sub.x=2 and m.sub.y=2 are applied to the case shown in FIG. 3. Using the 900-square km survey as an example, if the source and receivers are decimated to 50 m interval from 25 m internal, one out of four receivers, including the zero-offset receivers, are calculated for their Green's functions. Accordingly, the total computation time would be reduced to 150 days from 600 days.

(26) In a further embodiment of the instant disclosure, the method of acquisition illumination is further decimated. The Green's function at a source location is the same as the Green's function of the zero-offset receiver at the same location, i.e., G.sub.s.sub.i=G.sub.r.sub.i. Therefore, the Green's function at the source location can be used to calculate both the source-side illumination and the receiver-side illumination.

(27) FIG. 5, in which each source location overlaps with a zero-offset receiver location, further illustrates this embodiment. Once all the Green's functions for source locations are calculated, the receiver-side illumination can be generated using only the zero-offset receivers. Accordingly, equation (3) can be expressed as equation (4) below:
D.sub.s.sub.iG.sub.s.sub.i.sup.2*.sub.j=1.sup.Ns.sup.i(G.sub.s.sub.j.sup.2)(4)
G.sub.si is the Green's function of the source which covers the 3D volume having the size (Nx, Ny, Nz). Ns.sub.i is the number of shots deployed in the same 3D volume during the survey. G.sub.s.sub.j is the Green's function of each shot deployed in the same 3D volume. Illumination acquisition for the whole survey is then computed according to equation (2).

(28) Using the 900 square km-survey as an example, according the method of this embodiment, only the Green's functions of the source locations (the same as the locations of the zero-offset receivers) are calculated, i.e., N.sub.s=9,000 instead of 1.44 million, the total computation time is reduced to 37.5 days.

(29) In another embodiment, when the RTM is used to process seismic data, all the source wavefields are calculated in RTM, providing the Green's function for each of the source locations in the entire survey field. These Green's functions are used to generate the acquisition illumination according to the decimated illumination equation (4), which takes practically zero computation time.

(30) While in the foregoing specification this disclosure has been described in relation to certain preferred embodiments thereof, and many details have been set forth for purpose of illustration, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the disclosure is susceptible to alteration and that certain other details described herein can vary considerably without departing from the basic principles of the disclosure. In addition, it should be appreciated that structural features or method steps shown or described in any one embodiment herein can be used in other embodiments as well.