basic definitions

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BASIC DEFINITIONS
version 1.0 released 29/1/99

CONTENTS

DOMAINS AND TRANSFORMS

FOURIER TRANSFORM
CONVOLUTION
CORRELATION
WAVELET ANALYSIS - wiener filtering
FK TRANSFORM - spatial aliasing
RADON TRANSFORM
TAU-P TRANSFORM

DOMAINS AND TRANSFORMS

Seismic data is recorded into what is termed the timedomain. Several common processing routines
transform the data into a new domain, perform some
kind of operation and then the inverse routine is used to
reverse the transform. The purpose of this procedure is
to find a domain where signal can be more easily be
separated from noise and filtered or muted out. It is
often easier to understand noise types and design a
filter with the data transformed into the new domain. A
filter is applied to data to alter it in a manner calculated
to improve its quality in some way by removing noise
(unwanted signal). Muting refers to the process of
zeroing unwanted data samples to improve data quality
and is therefore a crude filter. In theory, if no operation
were performed the output would be identical to the
input, however this is not always the case in practise
because of approximations made in the transform
stages. Another reason for using transforms is
computational efficiency. In the recent past when
computer power was minimal and computer time was expensive then the often minimal loss in
accuracy (or introduction of artifacts) using transforms was considered acceptable compared to the
computer time saved. Modern computer systems may not need such transforms to perform
operations efficiently, however much of the historical literature will be written from this
perspective. The user is unlikely to notice the differences on the final processed data whichever
way the routines are implemented, although some of the parameter choices may differ in order to
minimise artifacts.

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COMMON TRANSFORMS AND PROCEDURES

FOURIER TRANSFORM
The
Fourier

Transform is by far the most important used in seismology. Fourier's theory states that a given
signal can be synthesised as a summation of sinusoidal waves of various amplitudes, frequencies
and phases. Using the Fourier Transform a time domain signal is transformed to the frequency
domain where it is equivalent to an Amplitude Spectrum and a Phase Spectrum. The adjacent
figure shows a simple time domain wavelet transformed into it's frequency domain components.
The F-X or Z -x domain is also shown. Basically this is a one-dimensional Fourier Transform over
time of usually of a gather or group of traces (hence the x-dimension). A process operating in this
domain will mix or alter the amplitude spectra of the group of traces before the inverse transform
is applied. Since there is only a single trace in the figure the F-X domain here just represents a
different view of the amplitude spectrum. The figure was created with PROMAX routine
Interactive Spectral Analysis.
Many operations e.g. bandpass frequency filtering are easier to understand in the frequency
domain. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is applied to a digitised time series, and the Fast
Fourier Transform (FFT) is a computer algorithm for rapid DFT computations. The latter imposes
the restriction that the time series must be a power of two samples long e.g. 512, 1024 which is
usually achieved by padding seismic traces with extra zeros.
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CONVOLUTION
CONVOLUTION: Is a mathematical way of
combining two signals to achieve a third,
modified signal. The signal we record seems to
respond well to being treated as a series of signals

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superimposed upon each other that is seismic

signals seem to respond convolutionally. The
process of DECONVOLUTION is the reversal
of the convolution process. Convolution in the
time domain is represented in the frequency
domain by a multiplying the amplitude spectra
and adding the phase spectra. The adjacent figure
shows a spike series representing an acoustic
impedance response from the earth which is
convolved (*) with a source wavelet to produce a
resulting seismic signal which is measured. In
principal by deconvolving the source wavelet we
could obtain the earth's reflectivity. However,
noise (unwanted signal) and other features are
also present in the recorded trace and the source
wavelet is rarely known with any accuracy. In the
figure (a) the spikes are sufficiently separated that
the convolution just results in a duplication of the
input wavelet at the spike times and with the
spike amplitudes. The convolution process just
involves multiplying every sample of the spike
series by the input wavelet and adding all the
results. In (b) the spikes are closer together and
interference occurs in the resulting trace. If the
wavelet were known the input spike series could
be discovered by the deconvolution process. The
convolutional model of the seismic trace states
that the trace we record is the result of the earth's reflectivity (what we want) convolved with the
source wavelet (and it's ghosts), multiples, the recording system and some noise.
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CORRELATION
CROSS-CORRELATION:
Is a statistical measure used to
compare two signals as a
function of the time shift (lag)
between them.
AUTOCORRELATION is a
special case where the signal
is compared with itself for a
variety of time shifts (lags)
and is particularly useful for
detecting repeating periods
within signals in the presence
of noise. The autocorrelation
function is often normalised
so that its maximum value at
zero lag is 1 (where the signal

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is correlated with itself). The

adjacent figure shows the
autocorrelation function of a
simple trace with two separated peaks. Figure (c) shows that the autocorrelation clearly identifies
the repeated wavelet in the input time series by the peak at 100ms. The autocorrelation has a zerophase spectrum. Both auto- and cross-correlation functions are required in the suppression of
multiple reflections by predictive deconvolution.
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WAVELET ANALYSIS
A wavelet is a term used to describe a short time series (typically less than 100 samples) which
can be used to represent, for example, the source function. As previously shown, the wavelet can
be studied as a time series in the time domain or in the frequency domain as an amplitude or phase
spectrum. For any amplitude spectrum there are an infinite number of time domain wavelets
which can be constructed by varying the phase spectrum. There are two special types of phase
spectra of specific interest.
The minimum
phase wavelet
has a short time
duration and a
concentration of
energy at the
start of the
wavelet. It is
zero before time
zero (causal).
An ideal seismic
source would be
a spike
(maximum
amplitude at
every
frequency), but
the best
practical one
would be
minimum phase.
It is quite
common to
convert a given
wavelet source wavelet into it's minimum phase equivalent since several processing stages (e.g.
predictive deconvolution) work best by assuming that the input data is minimum phase. The
maximum phase wavelet is the time reverse of the minimum phase and at every point the phase is
greater for the maximum than the minimum. All other causal wavelets are strictly speaking
mixed-phase and will be of longer time duration. The convolution of two minimum phase
wavelets is minimum phase. The zero-phase wavelet is of shorter duration than the minimum
phase equivalent. The wavelet is symmetrical with a maximum at time zero (non-causal). The fact
that energy arrives before time zero is not physically realisable but the wavelet is useful for

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increased resolving power and ease of picking reflection events (peak or trough). The convolution
of a zero-phase and minimum phase wavelet is mixed phase (because the phase spectrum of the
original minimum phase wavelet is not the unique minimum phase spectrum for the new modified
wavelet) and should be avoided.
A special type of wavelet often used for modelling purposes is the Ricker wavelet which is
defined by it's dominant frequency. The Ricker wavelet is by definition zero-phase, but a
minimum phase equivalent can be constructed. The Ricker wavelet is used because it is simple to
understand and often seems to represent a typical earth response.
WIENER FILTERING: To find the filter to shape a wavelet to another wavelet is not an exact
process, but the filter which produces the closest result can be obtained by a mathematical
technique known as least squares. The Wiener filter is that which best (in a least squares sense)
shapes a given wavelet to a desired wavelet. Applications include shaping a source wavelet to it's
minimum phase equivalent, shaping a wavelet within the data to a spike (to improve resolution) or
to shape a time-series with multiples to one without multiples (predictive deconvolution). Without
going into the mathematics it turns out that the filter is found by dividing the cross-correlation of
the input with the desired output by the auto-correlation of the input. This solution sets up a series
of simultaneous equations which are solved rapidly in the computer by matrix inversion using the
Levinson algorithm. A certain percentage of noise (called white noise or white light) is added to
stabilise the inversion program.
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F-K TRANSFORM
A two-dimensional Fourier transform over time and space is called an F-K (or K-F) transform
where F is the frequency (Fourier transform over time) and K refers to wave-number (Fourier
transform over space). The space dimension is controlled by the trace spacing and (just like when
sampling a time series) must be sampled according to the Nyquist criterion to avoid spatial
aliasing. Temporal Aliasing was previously discussed. In the F-K domain there is a twodimensional amplitude and phase spectrum but usually only the former is displayed for clarity
with colour intensity used to show the amplitudes of the data at different frequency and wavenumber components. Several noise types such as groundroll or seismic interference may be more
readily separated in the FK amplitude domain than the time-space domain and therefore will be
easier to mute before the inverse transform is applied.
In the
adjacent
figure
the flat
event on
the
synthetic
CMP
gather
shown
in red
maps
onto the
vertical
K=0
axis.

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The
event
coloured in red is seen to have a dominant frequency content of 5-40Hz. The dipping refraction
shown in blue maps to a dipping blue event and this event becomes spatially aliased above 30Hz
where it shows reverse dip (note the total frequency content is the same since it is the same
synthetic wavelet). The FK domain shows the spatial aliasing clearly whereas in the time domain
it is more difficult to spot by eye. The curved event shown in green maps to a range of dips in FK.
Therefore the FK transform may be described as decomposing the input data into a series of
straight lines which map to straight lines in the FK space, hence a range of dips in time can be
identified in FK and suppressed by muting. However it is easily seen that if a filter was designed
to remove the RED event it would be difficult to avoid filtering parts of the GREEN event (the
horizontal portions on the near offsets). It is easy to introduce artifacts using this technique by
application of filters with too steep slopes - considerable smoothing is often required at the filter
edges. The PROMAX routine (FK ANALYSIS) used to produce the figure allows interactive
picking of filters and will display the results interactively for quality control purposes.
Spatial aliasing, is a common
problem to be considered
when performing data
processing. One way to limit
the spatial aliasing of the
previous figure would be to
remove frequencies above
30Hz. This would be
wasteful of primary signal.
The trace spacing is also
important. Consider the
adjacent figure (a) & (b)
showing an event of 70Hz
dipping at 20 degrees.
Sampling every 12.5m
samples the signal properly,
but at 25m the signal
becomes spatially aliased
and appears to show reverse
dip which confuses
interpretation (as well as
many processing algorithms
such as migration).
Reverse dip is shown more
clearly in figure (c) where
the dip of the dipping event
becomes confusing when
high frequencies are present.
This effect is often more
apparent to computer
algorithms than the human
eye which tends to de-alias
seismic data. The formula for
determining the maximum
frequency which can be

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handled without spatial

aliasing is given by:

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RADON TRANSFORM
Strictly
speaking
the
Radon

transform is a generic mathematical procedure in which the input data in the frequency domain are
decomposed into a series of events in the RADON domain. Whichever curve type is chosen will
map to a point. Note this is similar to Fourier decomposition but using more complex functions
than sinusoids. Common geophysical usage however refers to the particular case where the input
data is decomposed into parabolas (or sometimes hyperbolas) since this transform can be
computed efficiently. The adjacent shows such a transformation and illustrates that the RADON
domain can be more accurate for filtering curved rather than dipping events than the FK domain the technique is now very commonly used for multiple suppression. Artifacts are also reduced.
Parameters required are the number and spacing of parabolas (often referred to as P traces) and the
maximum frequency to be transformed. The PROMAX routine (RADON ANALYSIS) is not as
interactive as the FK routine.
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TAU-P TRANSFORM
The
TAU-P

transform is another special case of RADON transform where the data are decomposed as a series
of straight lines which map to points in the tau-p domain. Hyperbolic events (e.g. those in shot
gathers) map to elliptical curves in Tau-P. This process also used to be referred to as slantstacking since to produce the tau-p domain the input data may be stacked along a series of straight
lines. The tau-p process is becoming common prior to predictive deconvolution for multiple
suppression since this performs more accurately in the tau-p domain. The tau-p transform may
also be used to optimally isolate and filter guided waves, refractions and types of interference.
Filtering in the tau-p domain is usually more expensive than in the F-K domain, but can produce
better quality results.
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