The British National Oil Corporation

Seismograph Service Corp.

Antoni M Ziolkowski

William E Lerwill

Paul L Stoffa

Gregory E Parkes

Leslie Hatton

Tor-Arvid Haugland

A seismic method and apparatus utilizes two point sound sources located at the same location on the earth to produce sound waves at different amplitudes and times. The reflections of the sound waves are analyzed to determine the acoustic properties and rock boundaries within the earth.

Seismographic method and apparatus using scaled sound sources

A method is provided of ascertaining the far field signature of an array of sound source units, each of which is small compared with the wavelength of the highest frequency of interest. The units are fired so that the interactions between them is negligible. This is achieved by firing the units sequentially so that each generates all its significant radiation before the next is fired, and/or by firing more than one unit at a time and separating the units by at least one wavelength of the lowest frequency of interest. The far field signature of each unit is measured by a pressure-sensitive detector close to the unit but in a region where the phase spectrum of the pressure field is independent of azimuth and range. The far field signature of the array is derived from the measured signatures by summation.

Determination of far field signatures, for instance of seismic sources

In order to determine the signature of an array of n seismic sources 21 to 27, for instance marine seismic sources in the form of air guns, the array is actuated and the emitted pressure wave is measured at n independent points whose positions will respect to the array are known by hydrophones 31 to 37. The measurements are processed to produce n equivalent signatures of the n sources taking into account the interactions therebetween. The signature of the array is then determined merely by superposing the n equivalent signatures.

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Twickenham, United Kingdom

Antoni M Ziolkowski