Focusing in Prestack Isochrone Migration Using Instantaneous Slowness Information

Abstract

—Prestack migration finds increasing application in processing crustal seismic data. However, less effort has been made to incorporate slowness information in the imaging process. The combination of slowness information with migration leads to an improved image in the depth domain, especially by reducing migration artefacts and noise. A slowness-driven isochrone migration scheme is introduced for migration of 2-D seismic data. Instantaneous slowness information p(x, t) is extracted from the data using correlation analysis in moving time and space windows. Slowness values resulting from spatial coherent energy (signal) and incoherent background noise are distinguished by the simultaneous evaluation of an instantaneous coherence criterion g(x, t). In slowness-driven isochrone migration this information is used for locally weighting the amplitude A(x, t) smearing on the isochrone surface. In particular, slowness p and coherence criterion g determine position and sharpness of a Gaussian weighting function. The method is demonstrated using two synthetic data examples and is subsequently applied to two deep crustal data sets, one wide-angle (along DEKORP4) and one steep-angle reflection seismic observation (KTB8506). Both data sets were collected in the surroundings of the KTB drill site, Oberpfalz, as part of the German DEKORP project.