Interferometric ground-roll removal: Attenuation of scattered surface waves in single-sensor data

Abstract

Land seismic data are contaminated by surface waves (or ground roll). These surface waves are a form of source-generated noise and can be strongly scattered by near-surface heterogeneities. The resulting scattered ground roll can be particularly difficult to separate from the desired reflection data, especially when this scattered ground roll propagates in the crossline direction. We have used seismic interferometry to estimate scattered surface waves, recorded during an exploration seismic survey, between pairs of receiver locations. Where sources and receivers coincide, these interreceiver surface-wave estimates were adaptively subtracted from the data. This predictive-subtraction process can successfully attenuate scattered surface waves while preserving the valuable reflected arrivals, forming a new method of scattered ground-roll attenuation. We refer to this as interferometric ground-roll removal.