3-D Reflection Synthetic Seismograms (1981)

3-D Reflection Synthetic Seismograms Miles J. Kuhn Miles J. Kuhn Phillips Petroleum Company Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Paper presented at the Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, May 1981. Paper Number: OTC-4095-MS https://doi.org/10.4043/4095-MS Published: May 04 1981 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Get Permissions Search Site Citation Kuhn, Miles J. "3-D Reflection Synthetic Seismograms." Paper presented at the Offshore Technology Conference, Houston, Texas, May 1981. doi: https://doi.org/10.4043/4095-MS Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentAll ProceedingsOffshore Technology ConferenceOTC Offshore Technology Conference Search Advanced Search AbstractThis paper considers the construction of point source synthetic seismograms based on extension of the Huygens-Fresnel principle to absorptive multilayered media. In the case discussed here the top layer in which both the source and the receiver are located is always fluid and subsequent stratification may consist of elastic or imperfectly elastic layers.If the subsurface consists of layers with curved and faulted boundaries, the analytical solution of the wave equation will not lend itself readily to numerical evaluation without some manner of approximation. It is shown here that the general solution is amenable to an approximation capable of describing accurately and very rapidly the field of the reflected and diffracted wavesStarting with a 3-D model of the subsurface, the proposed method replaces each boundary with a large number of elementary square "shingles" whose base is less than one-half of the dominant wavelength of the wavelet associated with each element. A raypath obeying Snell's law is drawn from the center of each shingle to every station point at the surface irrespective of whether the point is occupied by the source or by the receiver. Every two-way specular and nonspecular reflection raypath can be constructed by adding two one-way raypaths. The reflection response at the receiver point consists of a summation of the responses of all elements whose ray paths do not exceed the path length of the specular reflection by one-half of the dominant wavelength. After the summation is carried out, directivity, geometrical spreading and general reflectivity corrections must be applied.The response is then transformed into frequency domain in order to apply causal attenuation correction based on an auxiliary transmission model. Before inversion back to the time domain, an amplitude and phase correction prescribed by the theory of Huygens-Fresnel principle may also be applied.Although the described method involves many approximations of various kinds, it can be shown in cases where sufficiently exact responses can be computed either numerically or analytically, that the major events of the two synthetic seismograms are very nearly identical.IntroductionRealistic 3-D synthetic seismograms are very useful both as an interpretive aid and as a research tool. The offshore variety of the synthetic seismograms is particularly appealing because of the relative ease in describing the pressure source and because propagation of waves in the top layer in which both the source and the receiver are located is governed by scalar wave equation.As seen in Figure 1, our model consists of a fluid layer underlain by an arbitrarily layered elastic half space. Inside the fluid layer we have placed two horizontal reference planes; one at z=d is the plane to which the source S and receiver R are confined, andthe other at z=b is the plane of the aperture which contains point B.The solution to the homogeneous scalar wave equation may be expressed in the following form:(Mathematical equation available in fullpaper) Keywords: correction, reflection synthetic seismogram, approximation, plane, subsurface, reservoir characterization, construction, receiver, dominant wavelength, frequency Subjects: Reservoir Characterization, Seismic processing and interpretation This content is only available via PDF. 1981. Offshore Technology Conference You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.