Patent ID: 8004930

Claim:
A method comprising: a) determining coordinates of a first point rigidly attached to a rigid body floating on the sea surface in an earth-centered earth-fixed or other desired coordinate reference frame; b) measuring sufficient orientation parameters of the rigid floating body to determine a 3D offset in the coordinate reference frame of the first point to any point on or rigidly attached to the rigid body; c) applying a 3D coordinate shift from the first point to a second point rigidly attached to the body floating on the sea surface and thus determining the coordinates of the second point in the desired reference frame of the first point; d) determining on a shipboard computer a distance from the second point fixed to the rigid body to one or more devices that are components of a marine seismic acquisition spread, by comparing transmission times of a signal to recording times of transmitted signals and further multiplying by a signal propagation rate; and e) determining relative positions of components of the marine seismic spread to each other and to one or more of the devices rigidly attached to the rigid body floating on the sea surface in the desired coordinate reference frame.