Patent ID: 7505362

Claim:
A method for reconstructing shot records from a three-dimensional seismic survey, said method comprising: (a) sorting the seismic data into common-offset gathers; (b) DMO-processing (including divergence correction and normal moveout) the data to map the data to zero offset; (c) sorting the mapped data into common mid-point gathers; (d) applying temporal log-stretch and Fourier transforms to the common midpoint gathers; (e) forming input zero-offset shot gathers at desired locations for reconstructed shot gathers by selecting data traces from the common-midpoint gathers; (f) applying spatial log-stretching and Fourier transforms to the input zero-offset shot gathers; (g) designing an operator having a kinematics (shape) described by the following equations: {(2 h 0x /h x )−1} 2 +( t 0 /t ) 2 =1 h y =h x h 0y /h 0x where t 0 and t are time, and {right arrow over (h)} 0 =(h 0x ,h 0y ) and {right arrow over (h)}=(h x ,h y ) denote displacements (offsets) relative to shot location, for the input zero-offset shot record and the reconstructed shot record, respectively; (h) applying temporal and spatial log-stretch and Fourier transforms to said operator's impulse response; (i) multiplying the stretched and Fourier-transformed input zero-offset shot gathers by the stretched and Fourier-transformed impulse response, sample by sample; (j) inverse Fourier transforming and inverse log stretching the results from the previous step to produce reconstructed shot records; and (k) performing inverse normal moveout and inverse divergence compensation on the reconstructed shot records.