Source Signature Estimation in Shallow Water Surveys

Airgun arrays are the most widely used source for marine seismic surveys, normally composed of three to six subarrays, each sub-array composed of six to 14 airguns. By releasing high pressure air, the airguns are actuated either simultaneously or with a time delay. Each airgun produces an impulsive quasi-spherical shockwave and, all together, generates a spiky signature with a spectrum close to white. In this paper, we call source signature the time evolution of the wavefield vertically below the source center.