Patent ID: 6041018
Filing Date: 2000-03-21
Classification: G01V

Abstract:
A method for processing: (I) a first seismic image of a sub-surface volume of interest that has a first trace and was produced at a first time, and (ii) a second seismic image of substantially the same sub-surface volume that has a second trace and was produced at a second time that followed said first time by a span of time during which there was likely to be a change in the sub-surface volume of interest, to produce a time-lapse image of the sub-surface volume of interest with reduced noise, the first and second traces forming a common trace pair, the method comprising:cross-correlating the common trace pair to produce a correlation wavelet;processing said correlation wavelet to identify differences between the first seismic image and the second seismic image;decomposing said differences into a plurality of composite differences; andusing at least one of said plurality of composite differences to reduce noise in a time lapse image.