Patent ID: 8457899

Claim:
A method of calculating a seismic noise image from data obtained from seismic prospecting of an earth formation, comprising the steps of: a) obtaining data representing a multicomponent seismic signal from at least one multicomponent seismic receiver at a receiver location in an earth formation, in response to seismic waves transmitted into the earth formation; b) obtaining a velocity model of the earth formation; c) determining, using the multicomponent seismic signal and, optionally, the velocity model, a plurality of wave field components; d) obtaining a set of second components, wherein each second component is proportional to a component of an object selected from the group consisting of: a unit ray vector for a receiver and a subsurface point, a multicomponent source wavefield, and a product of a source wave field and a unit ray vector for a receiver and subsurface point; e) obtaining, for each subsurface point, at least two products, each product comprising the product of a selected wave field component and a different second component; and f) generating a noise image by calculating at least one difference between different products for at least one image point; wherein step c) comprises generating the wave field components for a set of subsurface points by back-propagation of each component of the multi-component data from physical source locations of the set of subsurface points; and wherein the second component in step d) is equal or proportional to the component of a unit ray vector for a given receiver and a given image point, multiplied by the wave field computed for the source at the receiver location; further including the step of complex conjugating one of said wave field components and said second components prior to step e).