Wave-height-corrected Seismic Data

The rough sea surface perturbs, to first order, the receiver ghost arrival time and introduces a source array static. We discuss how to measure and correct for both the receiver and the source perturbations for seismic data acquired in rough seas. For the receivers, ultralow (sub 1 Hz) pressure variations recorded by the hydrophones are inverted for wave height profiles which are both time and space variant. Local (compact) deconvolution operators are then used to stabilize the receiver ghost. For the source, real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS measurements accurately track the height of the source floats and a static correction is made at the time of each shot. Previously published work has concentrated on measuring and validating these errors, particularly on the receiver side, but corrections have not been applied to seismic data. Here, we show application of such corrections to seismic data acquired in rough seas. The resulting data show improved reflector continuity and a stabilized wavelet. Data repeatability is improved and the resulting data are more suitable for high-resolution surveys and time-lapse reservoir monitoring applications.