Systematic Detection and Correction of Instrument-Related Time Shifts Using Seismic Interferometric Surface Waves

Timing errors are a notorious problem in seismic data acquisition and processing. A technique is presented that allows such time shifts to be detected and corrected in a systematic fashion. The methodology relies on virtual-source responses retrieved through the application of seismic interferometry (SI). In application to recordings of ambient seismic noise, SI involves temporal averaging of time-windowed crosscorrelation measurements. Because surface waves dominate the ambient seismic field, the retrieved interferometric responses are typically also dominated by surface waves. Under favorable conditions, these interferometric responses therefore approach the surface-wave part of the medium's Green's function. Additionally, however, its time-reverse is also retrieved under those conditions. This implies time-symmetry of the time-averaged receiver-receiver crosscorrelations. It is this time-symmetry that is exploited in this study. By comparing the arrival time of the interferometric surface waves at positive time to the arrival time of the interferometric surface waves at negative time for a large a number of receiver-receiver pairs, relative timing errors are determined in a least-squared sense. The proposed methodology is validated using both synthetic data and field data. The results hold particular promise for time-lapse (4D) seismic surveys. © 2018 Society of Petroleum Engineers. All rights reserved.