Downward continuation of marine seismic reflection data: an undervalued tool to improve velocity models

Abstract

SUMMARY The purpose of marine seismic experiments is to provide information of the structure and physical properties of the subsurface. The P-wave velocity distribution is the most commonly modelled property, usually by inversion of arrival times or waveform attributes. In wide-angle seismic reflection/refraction (WAS) experiments, arrival times of seismic phases identified in data recorded by ocean bottom seismometers (OBS) are used to image relatively deep structures. Most WAS experiments have relatively low redundancy and produce robust velocity models of limited resolution. The shallow subsurface is also commonly studied with multichannel seismic (MCS) data recorded by towed streamers, a technique that is highly complementary to WAS. In this case, the recording of refractions as first arrivals is limited primarily by the streamer length and by features like water depth and the velocity structure and, in general, most refractions are masked by reflections and noise. However, MCS data of variable quality are available in many regions where no other data exist and previous work has shown that these data can also be used to retrieve velocity models through traveltime and full waveform inversion provided that first arrival information is properly extracted from the record sections. The most widely used tool to extract refractions as first arrivals from MCS recordings is the so-called downward continuation technique, which is designed for redatuming streamer field data to the seafloor. In this new virtual configuration, the early refractions transform to seismic phases that are becoming visible as first arrivals from nearly zero offset, facilitating their identification and use in traveltime tomography. However, there is limited literature, let alone available codes, to be used with the available MCS data sets. This work presents a user-friendly open source HPC software for redatuming 2-D streamer field data to the sea bottom for any seafloor relief. The main ingredient is the acoustic wave equation used backwards in time, allowing first the redatuming of the receivers and then the redatuming of the sources. Assessment tools are provided to evaluate the information available after redatuming for specific data acquisition configurations. Also, we present a step-by-step analysis that defines the most important features that influence the quality of the virtual, redatumed recordings.