Survey Design - Pre-Survey Modeling

• Specular Fold Estimation:
• This technique is used to gain a simple understanding of how the survey acquisition variables of array depth, max shot offset, and shot spacing control fold magnitude and illumination distance in a 1D earth model, and to narrow the possible acquisition geometries to pass on to illumination modeling.


• 3D Ray - Tracing Illumination Modeling:
• With guidance from the specular fold estimate, this technique is used to get an accurate estimate of the aerial illumination at the target horizon for various acquisition geometries using a 3D layered earth model.


• Finite Difference Modeling:
  • With guidance from the 3D ray tracing results, the best acquisition parameters are used to model the seismic response from the 3D earth model so we can analyze waveforms and related attributes such as frequency content and phase.

Pre-Survey Modeling - 907Kb PDF file