Patent · US Expired

System for eliminating headwaves in a tomographic process

US6269310A · kind A · utility

161Cited by
8References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateAug 25, 1999
Grant dateJul 31, 2001
Priority date
Expiry dateAug 25, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01V1/42
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

The invention comprises a method for processing crosswell seismic data from a region of the earth's subsurface generated by transmitting a seismic signal from a plurality of source positions within at least one borehole within said region and detecting said seismic signal at a plurality of receiver positions in at least one borehole within said region. In a preferred embodiment, the seismic data is utilized to develop a model of raypaths traveled by seismic signals from said source positions to said receiver positions, and these raypaths are evaluated to determine if the seismic signal traveling along the raypaths traveled as a headwave for at least a part of the transmission path between the source position and the receiver position. Raypaths along which the seismic signals traveled as headwaves are deleted from the model, and a profile representing a property of the region of the earth's subsurface is then prepared utilizing the residual raypaths.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.