Deep‐water peg legs and multiples: Emulation and suppression

Abstract

This paper discusses a two‐step method for predicting and attenuating multiple and peg‐leg reflections in unstacked seismic data. In the first step, an (observed) seismic record is extrapolated through a round‐trip traversal of the water layer, thus creating an accurate prediction of all possible multiples. In the second step, the record containing the predicted multiples is compared with and subtracted from the original. The wave‐equation method employed to predict the multiples takes accurate account of sea‐floor topography and so requires a precise water‐bottom profile as part of the input. Information about the subsurface below the sea floor is not required. The arrival times of multiple reflections are reproduced precisely, although the amplitudes are not accurate, and the sea floor is treated as a perfect reflector. The comparison step detects the similarities between the computed multiples and the original data, and estimates a transfer function to equalize the amplitudes and account for any change in waveform caused by the sea‐floor reflector. This two‐step wave‐equation method is effective even for dipping sea floors and dipping subsurface reflectors. It does not depend upon any assumed periodicity in the data or upon any difference in stacking velocity between primaries and multiples. Thus it is complementary to the less specialized methods of multiple suppression.