The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 10, 2013
Filed:
May. 12, 2009
Jon-fredrik Hopperstad, Cambridge, GB;
Jon-Fredrik Hopperstad, Cambridge, GB;
WesternGeco L.L.C., Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
A method of obtaining information about the positions of sources in a marine seismic source array, comprises: determining respective notional signatures for m selected seismic sources, where m<n, where n is the number of sources of the array actuated to generate an output; and obtaining information about the travel between one of the m selected seismic sources and one of the n−m unselected seismic sources from the determined notional signatures. The m seismic sources are selected as sources whose positions, relative to one another, are expected to be close to their nominal positions. The effect of the n−m unselected seismic sources is ignored in the calculation of the nominal signatures for the m sources, and this gives rise to anomalies in the nominal signatures for the m sources. The determined travel time may be converted to a distance, so that information about the positions of the n−m unselected seismic sources may be obtained from the anomalies. Alternatively, the nominal signatures calculated for the m sources may be compared with notional signatures calculated for an estimate of the actual positions of the sources. The invention allows information about the actual geometry of the source array to be obtained from near-field measurements, so avoiding the need for a separate position-determining means.