Acquisition footprint suppression via the truncated SVD technique: Case studies from Saudi Arabia

MUHAMMAD S. AL-BANNAGI, KEN FANG, PANOS G. KELAMIS, and GREG S. DOUGLASS, Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia
n acquisition footprint is noise in 3D seismic data that should be removed prior to interpretation. This paper presents an adaptation of the standard truncated singular value decomposition (TSVD) algorithm that is not only capable of removing random noise, but is actually a very powerful tool for suppressing acquisition footprint artifacts in seismic data. An acquisition footprint is the result of suboptimal spatial sampling. A typical footprint appears as a linear spatial grid pattern of noise that can be seen on 3D seismic time slices or horizon amplitude maps. These patterns, most often observed on shallow time slices, tend to mirror the acquisition geometry and correlate with the geometric distribution of sources and receivers on the acquisition surface. Surveys acquired using sparse 3D acquisition geometries show these patterns very clearly (Figure 1). This type of noise introduces a periodic modulation in amplitude values and affects the lateral continuity of seismic events. Therefore, it is highly desirable to minimize this contamination prior to interpretation. There are three main techniques used to reduce the generation of acquisition footprints: (1) acquisition geometries which produce a minimal variation of the bin-to-bin population of trace offsets; (2) via prestack processes which minimize the offset-related amplitude differences among traces prior to stacking; and (3) using poststack processes such as mixing, f-k, and Kx-Ky filtering. The truncated SVD procedure. Singular value decomposition (SVD) is a well-known and documented technique used in digital signal processing for random and coherent noise attenuation. The basic idea is that a seismic wavefield containing both signal and noise can be represented as a matrix A of N traces with T sample points per trace. This matrix can then be decomposed using the SVD into eigenimages that separate the wavefield into its different components based on energetic criteria. Any eigenimages representing the noise can then be excluded in the reconstruction of the wavefield. The TSVD procedure is a variation using four steps in the standard rank-reduction algorithm. It uses Hankel matrix theory combined with SVD and can be summarized as follows: 1. Form a Hankel matrix from the input signal. 2. Compute the SVD for this matrix. 3. Obtain a reduced-rank matrix by dropping the insignificant singular values. 4. Construct the output signal from this matrix after averaging along its antidiagonals. The following real data examples demonstrate the performance of the TSVD algorithm in attenuating random noise and acquisition footprint. The application is done in the time slice domain and in a cascaded multidirectional manner. Figure 2 illustrates how the methodology works. The selection of eigenimages for the reconstruction of the wavefield after each TSVD iteration is designed so that both random and acquisition footprint noise are suppressed.

Figure 1. Time slice exhibiting a strong acquisition footprint and its Kx-Ky transform.

Figure 2. Schematic flow of the cascaded, multidirectional application of TSVD on time slices.

Case studies from Saudi Arabia. The data acquired from various areas in the Saudi Arabian peninsula include different types of acquisition geometry. In all time slices shown the scale in x and y is 1:1. A time slice from a 3D survey with severe acquisition footprint is shown in Figure 3 before and after the application of the TSVD algorithm. Note the considerable reduction of the footprint while the data character has been retained. Figure 4 illustrates the ability of the TSVD technique to remove random noise using a crossline from a 3D survey. A considerable improvement in signal to noise ratio can be observed after the application of the TSVD algorithm. Figure 5 shows an inline from a survey acquired using sparse 3D acquisition techniques. These are designed to cover large land areas (thousands of square-kilometers) relatively quickly and at a reduced cost to the exploration program. This acquisition design is characterized by large receiver and shot line spacing combined with relatively low nominal fold. The tradeoff inherent in this type of survey design is a less than optimum bin-to-bin offset distribution, less noise cancellation, and a strong acquisition footprint as is evident in this example. The application of the TSVDbased approach has clearly attenuated the acquisition footprint and random noise and significantly improved the

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Figure 3. Input time slice at 320 ms (top) and after the application of the TSVD algorithm (bottom).

Figure 4. Input 3D crossline (top) and after the application of the TSVD algorithm (bottom).

Figure 5. Input 3D inline (top) and after the application of the TSVD algorithm (bottom).

event continuity. Figure 6 depicts a zoom of the shallow part of the 3D inline shown in Figure 5. The curve in the upper part of both images is the seismic amplitude of the picked horizon. The periodic, high-frequency modulation in amplitude seen on the top image is a common characteristic of the acquisition footprint. The bottom image shows that application of the TSVD technique greatly reduces this amplitude modulation while preserving the relative spatial character. Application of the TSVD algorithm using the new

Figure 6. Zoom of Figure 5. The horizon amplitude plot above the seismic data shows the high-frequency amplitude modulation commonly seen in data with a strong acquisition footprint (top). The TSVD (bottom) has significantly suppressed this modulation while preserving the relative spatial amplitude.

methodology results in cleaner, more continuous data and is expected to have a positive impact on other attributes such as coherency, spectral decomposition, and lithology classification. Figure 7 shows three different shallow time slices of coherency volumes. The original data are shown on the left and the new TSVD-filtered data are shown on the right. The TSVD method removes much of the acquisition footAUGUST 2005 THE LEADING EDGE 833

Figure 7. Time slices of coherency at 332, 400 and 524 ms before (left) and after (right) the application of the TSVD algorithm.

print/noise and thus results in much cleaner time slices which reveal karst and channel edges. Conclusions. The TSVD algorithm, applied in a cascaded multidirectional manner in the time slice domain, attenuates both acquisition footprint and random noise in 3D seismic data while maintaining the data character. Application results of the new technique using different 3D datasets are very promising and can significantly impact structural and stratigraphic interpretation.
Suggested reading. Acquisition footprintits detection and removal by Chopra and Larsen (CSEG Recorder, 2000). FIR filter representations of reduced-rank noise reduction by
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Hansen and Jensen (IEEE Signal Processing, 1998). Acquisition footprint and fold-of-stack plots by Hill et al. (TLE, 1999). Signal-to-noise ratio enhancement in multichannel seismic data via the Karhunen-Loeve transform by Jones and Levy (Geophysical Prospecting, 1987). Attenuation of acquisition footprint for non-orthogonal 3D geometries by Soubaras (EAGE 2002, Expanded Abstracts). F-XY eigenimage noise suppression by Trickett (GEOPHYSICS, 2003). TLE
Acknowledgments: The authors wish to thank the Saudi Arabian Oil Company for encouraging this work and for granting permission to publish this paper. Corresponding author: Panos Kelamis, panos.kelamis@aramco.com