Post-migration inverse Q filtering to enhance amplitude supported prospectivity evaluation

Abstract Our primary investigative tool for understanding the subsurface prospectivity is seismic data, where energy reflected from different seismic horizons can reveal the physical properties of these rocks. The deeper in the earth we look, the weaker the reflected signal will be, so finding ways to boost this signal, without affecting its properties is critical to being able to analyse this signal. Furthermore, seismic interpretation requires a quantitative understanding of the seismic data and it is common practice to assume that the seismic amplitudes can be understood in terms of either acoustic or elastic wave propagation. Preparing ‘interpretation-ready’ seismic data therefore faces two possibly conflicting challenges. On the one hand, seismic processing should conserve the amplitude fidelity of the seismic data. On the other hand, compensation of viscous effects such as attenuation and dispersion facilitates data analysis.