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Source signature estimation based on the removal of first order multiples

SP5.7

Luc T. Ikelle*, Graham Roberts, and Arthur B. Weglein, Schlumberger Cambridge Research

SUMMARY
The estimation of the source signature is often one of the
necessary first steps in the processing of seismic reflection
data, especially if the processing chain includes prestack
multiple removal. In this work, a new source estimation
method based on prestack data is presented. It consists
of finding the source signature that permits the removal
of events due to the first order free-surface reflections (i.e.
first order multiples). The method exploits the formulation of the relationship between the free-surface reflections
and the source signature as an inverse scattering Born series. In this formulation, the order of the scattering series
coincides with that of the free-surface reflections, and the
series is constructed exclusively with seismic data, the water velocity and source signature, and without requiring any
knowledge of the subsurface.
By restricting the problem to first order free-surface reflections, we have rendered the relationship between freesurface reflections and source signature linear, which also
corresponds to a truncation of the inverse scattering Born
series to its first two terms. Thus, the source signature
estimation can be formulated as a linear inverse problem.
Assuming that the removal of first order free-surface events
produces a significant reduction in the energy of the data,
we posed the inverse problem as finding the source signature which minimizes this energy. This optimization leads
to a stable iterative solution. The iterations are needed to
correct for the truncation effects. The preliminary results
with real and synthetic data are quite satisfactory.
SOURCE ESTIMATION AND FREE-SURFACE
MULTIPLE REMOVAL
Free-surface multiple removal
The estimation of the source signature is one of the classic
problems in exploration seismology. Although linear processing methods can derive benefits from knowledge of the
source signature, its detailed knowledge is an essential prerequisite for non-linear methods such as the surface multiple
removal procedure.
The approach to wavelet inversion described here consists
of finding the source signature which optimally removes the

first order multiples within the framework of an inverse scattering series. It exploits the relationship between the freesurface reflections and the source signature formulated as a
scattering Born series [Carvalho et al. (1991)]. Each term
of this series is constructed using exclusively the seismic reflection data, the velocity of water and the source signature.
No knowledge of the subsurface is required.
The scattering Born series for removing free-surface
ples can be written
(1)
where
is the Fourier transform of the seismic
data with respect to receiver and source locations
and time
and are the horizontal wavenumbers for
receiver and source, respectively, and w is the frequency.
denotes data without free-surface multiples and A denotes
the inverse of the Fourier transform of the source signature.
etc. are given by
=

, (2)

(3)
The constant c is the velocity of water and k is a generic horizontal wavenumber. The importance of the obliquity factor, cos (plane wave incident angle for free surface multiple removal has recently been demonstrated by Dragoset
(1993), but it's sometimes omitted in other formulations.
The scattering series described in equation (1) shows that
the removal of the free-surface multiples involves only the
seismic data,
and the inverse source, A. The first term
of the scattering series,
is the deghosted data; the second term,
removes first order free-surface multiples;
the next term,
removes second order free-surface multiples, and so on. Verschuur et al. (1992) and Carvalho
and Weglein (1994) have used two different approaches for
estimating the wavelet from the entire series. Their methods are based on the idea that data without multiples has
less energy than data with multiples, a non-linear problem
that requires a numerical rather than an analytic solution.

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Source estimation/multiple removal

SYNTHETIC DATA EXAMPLE

In contrast, the procedure presented here is based on the

concept that data without first order surface mutiples has
less energy than data with those multiples and results in
a linear problem with an analytic solution. Iterations are
also analytic.

In this section, we present a synthetic example to illustrate

the method. Our model consists of two homogeneous horizontal layers overlying a homogeneous half space. The interfaces are at 120 and 285 meters. The layer and half space velocities are 1500 m/s, 2000 m/s and 2500 m/s, respectively.
A synthetic shot point gather was generated, consisting of
83 receivers with a spacing of 12.5 metres.

In our approach to source estimation, we truncate the series

to its first two terms,
(4)

Figure 1 displays the synthetic data. The data consists of

two primaries and several free-surface multiples. In this example, the primaries and multiples interfere. In particular,
and the
notice that at near offsets the second primary,
interfere destrucfirst order multiple of the first primary,
tively, but as offset increases the extent of the interference
decreases due to the difference in moveout between the primary and multiple. This means that, in this example, at
near offsets energy increases when first order multiples are
removed, contrary to the energy criteria required for optimization. However, as offset increases the energy of data
with multiples becomes greater than the energy of data with
primaries only. Hence, for this type of situation we must ensure that the range of offsets is adequate to allow the proper
application of this method.

which essentially corresponds to the removal of the first order multiples. The theory predicts that if we find a source
signature which permits the removal of the first order multiples, such source signature will also remove higher order
multiples when it is used with higher order terms of the
series. Furthermore, we have rendered the relationship between
and A linear. Thus the source signature estimation can be formulated as a linear inverse problem.
Source estimation
Assuming that the removal of the first order free-surface
events produces a lowering in energy of the data, we posed
the inverse problem as finding the best source signature
which minimizes this energy. The best source in the least
squares sense is defined as the A which minimizes

Figure 2 shows the results of the inversion for the source

signature for the first and fifth iterations. The result is
quite satisfactory when compared to the actual source. The
phase is well estimated after only one iteration with further iterations required to improve the amplitude. Figure
3 illustrates the effect of multiple removal using the source
has
after one iteration only. We see that the multiple of
been suppressed but not totally removed. The result after
5 iterations is shown in Figure 4; all multiples have been
successfully removed.

(5)
where

denotes the weighted

norm.

If we neglect truncation errors in the forward problem as

given in equation (4), the minimization problem in equation
(5) gives the following analytical solution
(6)
where the asterisk denotes complex conjugate. The optimization algebra that leads to this solution is similar to
Ikelle et al. (1986). The weighting function, W, describes
the errors in data and the a priori information on the source.
The application of equation (4), using the inverse source
permits a significant reduction of first order multiple energy.
allowing the removal
Iterations are performed to correct
of the remaining first order multiple energy. For that purequal to the result in equation (4), and then
pose, we set
reapplied equation (6) to find the correction to the source.
This process is repeated until two successive corrections are
sufficiently close.

REAL DATA EXAMPLE

Let us now look at an application of our source estimation to
real data. The data is a 2D marine seismic line acquired by
Total which has been used in previous multiple suppression
studies [e.g., Jugla et al. (1994)]. The preprocessing here
consisted of despiking, muting the direct wave and a 3D to
2D amplitude correction.
Figure 5 shows the source wavelet after one and five iterations. Notice that the iteration process has essentially
corrected only the amplitude of the wavelet. As in the synthetic example discussed earlier, the phase of the wavelet is
largely unchanged through the iteration process. We have
also observed, based on the 185 shot gathers used in this
source estimation, that source directivity and variations in
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Source estimation/multiple removal

Ikelle, L.T., Diet, J.P. and Tarantola, A., 1986, Linearized
inversion of multioffset seismic reflection data in the
domain. Geophysics, 51, 1266-1276.

the source wavelet from shot to shot are not significant in

this case. However, when these effects are significant, they
can be accomodated by the solution for the inverse source
given in equation (6).

Jugla, F., Julien, P., de Groot, P.F. and Verschuur, E.,

1994, A real case comparison between surface-related multiple elimination and other wave equation-based techniques.
Presented at the 64th SEG meeting, Los Angeles.

Figure 6 shows shot gathers before and after multiple suppression using the source wavelet after five iterations along
with the estimated multiples. The efficacy of the multiple removal method is demonstrated by the lower multiple
energy between 0.6 and 1.5 seconds and the removal of the
multiple from the interfering event at 1.5 seconds.

Verschuur, D.J., Berkhout, A.J. and Wapenaar, C.P.A.,

1992, Adaptive surface-related multiple elimination. Geophysics, 57, 1166-1177.

Spikes were present in the data and some were removed.

The other spikes could not be easily removed without altering the primaries. Therefore, these latter spikes are retained. They are interpreted as primaries and the method
produces their demultiple operators. This manifests as a
series of diffractions on the demultiple gather and the estimated multiples.
CONCLUSIONS
For successful prestack free-surface multiple removal, a knowledge of the source signature is required. By analogy to the
velocity-migration method for estimating velocity using migration, we have exploited this requirement to estimate the
source which permits the free-surface multiple removal. By
restricting the problem to first-order multiples, we have rendered it linear and analytic in solution. Each iteration is
also analytic. Results with real and synthetic data showed
that the main characteristic of the source is recovered at the
first iteration. Approximately five iterations are needed for
successful multiple removal.
The method results in a good estimate of the wavelet for
multiple attenuation and other applications.

Figure 1.
Shot record corresponding to a subsurface
made of two homogeneous horizontal layers and a homogeneous half space. The data has only two primaries,
and
but several multiples. The first order multiple of
interferes with primary,

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors acknowledge the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and Total CFP for permission to publish the data.
REFERENCES
Carvalho, P.M., Weglein, A.B. and Stolt, R.H., 1991, Examples of a Nonlinear Inversion Method Based on the T Matrix
of Scattering Theory: Application to Multiple Suppression.
Presented at the 61st SEG meeting, Houston.
Carvalho, P.M., Weglein, A.B. 1994, Wavelet Estimation for
Surface Multiple Attenuation using a Simulated Annealing
Algorithm. Presented at 64th SEG meeting, Los Angeles.
Actual (solid) and estimated source wavelet
Figure 2.
after 1 (dashed) and 5 (dotted) iterations.

Dragoset, W. and MacKay S., 1993, Surface Multiple Attenuation and Subsalt Imaging. Presented at the 63rd SEG
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Source estimation/multiple removal

Figure 3.
Result of multiple removal on the shot record
of Figure 1 using the source signature obtained after 1
iteration.

Figure 4.
Result of multiple removal on the shot record
of Figure 1 using source signature obtained after 5 iterations.

Figure 5. Estimated source wavelet after 1 (dashed)

and 5 (solid) iterations from real data.

From left to right: shot gather before multiple elimination, after

Figure 6.
multiple elimination and the predicted multiples.

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