Patent ID: 7386397
Filing Date: 2008-06-10
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a vertical component of particle velocity from seismic data acquired using at least one receiver disposed within a water column, the method comprising: determining the vertical component of particle velocity from the pressure at a first location and a second location, the first location being the location of a first receiver and being vertically beneath the second location and the second location being below the surface of the water column and being the location of a second receiver, using an operator suitable for seismic data acquired at a vertical separation between the first and second locations of up to at least 0.4 times the minimum wavelength of seismic energy emitted by a seismic source used to acquire the seismic data, wherein the operator is a spatially compact operator and includes only finite powers of the wavenumber k and corresponding orders of spatial derivatives in the space-time domain, said operator being stored in a memory for use in the processing of seismic data, and wherein the vertical component of particle velocity at the second location is determined from pressure acquired at the second receiver and from pressure acquired at the first receiver from the following equation or from an equation derived therefrom: B n is the n th Bernoulli number, and κ 2 =k x 2 +k y 2 .