A standard quantitative calibration procedure for marine seismic sources

Marine source evaluation has traditionally been a subjective and qualitative study. This is particularly true in the case of source spectral characteristics. As a result, source evaluation, development, and array design based on seismic energy over a specified frequency band have been impossible. Further, the transient nature of source wavelets lends itseft to energy analysis rather than the traditional relative power analysis. The methodology required to achieve a calibrated quantitative estimate of marine seismic source energy is detailed here. The procedure involves two steps. First, a calibrated high‐fidelity measurement of the source signature is required; and second, an analysis of the signatures by a suite of computer algorithms designed to extract quantified measures of amplitude and energy is necessary. Results of the analysis include a time‐domain signature calibrated in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) units of pressure and a frequency domain spectrum calibrated in ANSI units of ene...