Patent ID: 8451686

Claim:
A method for the acquisition of seismic data relating to a subsurface area on the surface of which are deployed (1) a plurality of seismic wave receivers in contact with the ground, (2) a recording device for recording signals produced by plural receivers, and (3) a plurality of vibration sources scheduled to follow respective predetermined paths each including a succession of shooting positions, said sources being operable to produce, when they are in a shooting position, seismic vibrations according to a sweep type shooting sequence, of a predetermined duration and variable frequency, the method comprising the steps of: synchronizing clocks of the sources and the recording device; authorizing each source to shoot at a respective series of predetermined shooting times t k,n , with k being an order number for a given source and n a source order number, between 1 and the number of sources N s , said authorizing step causing the source to produce seismic vibrations on the condition that at said time t kn , the source is in a state to produce vibrations or otherwise, if the source is not in the state to produce vibrations, causing the source to produce the seismic vibrations at a next time t k+1,n of the respective series of predetermined shooting times; and continuously recording signals produced by the vibrations at the plural receivers, wherein said time t k,n is a function of an initial time T 0 , the number of sources N s , a predetermined time IT, the order number k and the source order number n.