Super-virtual refraction interferometry: An engineering field data example

Abstract

The theory of super-virtual refraction interferometry (SVI) was recently developed to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of far-offset traces in refraction surveys. This enhancement of the SNR is proportional to √N and can be as high as N if an iterative procedure is used. Here N is the number of post-critical shot positions that coincides with the receiver locations. We now demonstrate the SNR enhancement of super-virtual refraction traces for one engineering-scale synthetic data and two field seismic data sets. The field data are collected over a normal fault in Saudi Arabia. Results show that both the SNR of the super-virtual data set and the number of reliable first-arrival traveltime picks are significantly increased. © 2012 European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers.