Patent ID: 7366616

Claim:
A computer-based method for real-time modeling and visualizing a property of a subterranean earth formation while drilling a borehole therethrough comprising: obtaining a plurality of electromagnetic signals corresponding to a current measurement station location of a measurement-while-drilling tool; generating a multilayer model corresponding to the plurality of electromagnetic signals; generating a histogram characterizing uncertainty of the multilayer model over depth values above and below the measurement-while-drilling tool by sampling said multilayer model and overlying samples of said multilayer model; generating a set of color hue values based upon said histogram, said set of color hue values representing predictions of the property of the earth formation for depth values above and below the measurement-while-drilling tool; generating a set of saturation values based upon said histogram, said set of saturation values corresponding to said set of color hue values and representing uncertainties for the predictions from which the corresponding color hue values are derived; generating and displaying a curtain plot whose columns employ colors to depict predictions of the property of the subterranean earth formation for depth values above and below the measurement-while-drilling tool over successive measurement station locations, wherein each column of the curtain plot corresponds to a given measurement station location; and generating a new column of the curtain plot for the current measurement station location, wherein the color values of the new column are based upon the set of color hue values and the set of saturation values derived from said histogram, wherein the saturation levels of the color values of the new column represent uncertainties for the predictions from which the corresponding color values are derived.