Patent ID: 8488409

Claim:
A method for designing a survey, comprising: dividing a survey area into a grid of tiles, wherein each tile has a subsurface swath width based at least in part on a number of streamer cables in an array and a separation distance between the streamer cables; positioning a first set of nodes around which continuously curved sail lines are defined within a first subset of the tiles such that: respective nodes in the first set of nodes are separated by a first increment in a first direction, and respective nodes in the first set of nodes are separated by a second increment in a second direction; and positioning a second set of nodes around which continuously curved sail lines are defined within a second subset of the tiles such that: respective nodes in the second set of nodes are separated by the first increment in the first direction and by the second increment in the second direction, and respective nodes in the second set of nodes are offset from respective nodes in the first set of nodes by a third increment in the first direction and by a fourth increment in the second direction.