Patent ID: 8004931

Claim:
A control unit for a seismic data acquisition system where seismic energy is emitted into the earth from a seismic vibrator at each of a plurality of survey locations wherein a first plurality of seismic vibrators are deployed to various of the survey locations within a survey area and where each seismic vibrator, after emitting its sweep of seismic energy at a survey location, moves to another of the survey locations within the survey area to emit a subsequent frequency sweep of seismic energy into the earth until all of the survey locations have had seismic energy emitted thereupon and further wherein each swee of seismic ener from each seismic vibrator is source separable from all other sweeps of seismic energy from all other survey locations, where the seismic data acquisition system is in data communication with a first plurality of seismic vibrators comprising: a) a processor associated with memory; b) an application program associated with the processor, for execution, comprising: instructions to dynamically select a second plurality of seismic vibrators from the first plurality of seismic vibrators as a function of a geometrical relationship associated with each field survey location of each vibrator, in real-time, of the first plurality of seismic vibrators; instructions to determine source parameter data as a function of the location of at least one vibrator in the second plurality of seismic vibrators; and instructions to activate the second plurality of seismic vibrators to propagate energy into the earth.