Depth‐imaging resolution of 3-D seismic recording patterns

Abstract

The prestack imaging resolution capabilities of various 3-D seismic recording patterns are revealed when a Born‐approximate theory is applied to backscattered waves. The 3-D imaging resolution of such patterns is compactly studied using a constant‐velocity model with a point scatterer or a line scatterer at depth. By use of a well‐known acoustic imaging formula, it is shown that the resolution of a point scatterer in the X and Y directions is not significantly different for various realistic layouts of sources and receivers in land‐type recording, even though the recording patterns appear to be greatly dissimilar, provided the aperture remains constant. For marine‐type survey patterns, the image is almost as well‐resolved in the crossline direction as the inline direction. This is true whether the scattering object is a point or a line. In marine surveying, symmetric resolution of subsurface features can be achieved by conducting two orthogonal surveys at half the density of one unidirectional survey.