GB1578800A - Vertically directive arrays for marine seismic exploration - Google Patents

Description

(54) VERTICALLY DIRECTIVE ARRAYS FOR MARINE SEISMIC EXPLORATION (71) We, MOBIL OIL CORPORATION, a Corporation organisea under the laws of the State of New York, United States of America, of 150 East 42nd Street, New Yolk, New York 10017, United States of America, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- This invention relates to methods of and apparatus for marine seismic exploration, and more particularly to arrays of sources and receivers which have vertical directivity.

In marine seismic exploration the seismic energy can be generated by a linear array of sources which are towed behind the boat.

The towing cables provide a fixed spacing between the sources. Typically, each source may be an "air gun" which releases pulses of compressed air into the water. A typical air gun is shown in U.S. patent 3,506,085. Such guns emit seismic pulses having a characteristic frequency range including the lowest frequency, the highest frequency and the predominant frequency of the seismic energy in each pulse.

The boat also tows a streamer of hydrophones which detect the seismic energy reflected from subsurface formations. Systems which have a long offset between the sources and the hydrophones are subject to nearly horizontal traveling source-generated noise of substantial amplitude.

It can be shown that there is a critical distance from the source which is determined by the acoustic velocity in the water and the acoustic velocity in the bottom. Beyond the critical distance, energy is totally reflected and propagates horizontally. It is desirable to use sources and receivers which discriminate against such horizontal propagation.

In the prior art the array length and the spacing between the elements of the array have been determined by the predominant frequency in the seismic pulse. Such technique provide directivity for energy at the predominant frequency but they do not give good directivity over the broad band of the seismic pulse. For example, in U.S.

patent 3,479,638, the spacing between the sources is an integer of one-half the wavelength of the desired frequency. In U.S. patent 3,613,823, the length of the array is greater than one wavelength of the predominant frequency. Such approaches will not give directivity over the broad band of the seismic pulse.

In this invention, vertically directive arrays of sources and detectors are used to discriminate horizontally propagated source-generated noise in marine seismic exploration.

According to the invention we provide a system for marine seismic exploration comprising: a marine vessel, a plurality of seismic energy sources each producing seismic pulses having a frequency content including the lowest frequency, the highest frequency and the predominant frequency of the seismic energy in each pulse, a plurality of hydrophones for detecting reflected seismic pulses, and means for towing said sources and said hydrophones in horizontal linear arrays behind said vessel with fixed spacing between said sources, fixed spacing between said hydrophones, and an offset distance between the array of sources and the array of hydrophones, the length of at least one of said arrays being longer than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially lowest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses, and the spacing between elements of said at least one array being no more than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially highest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses.

The directivity of the array of sources can be changed by changing the time delay between the firing of the sources in the array.

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be better understood from the following more detailed description and appended claims.

Figs. I and 2 show the marine seismic exploration system; Fig. 3 shows the characteristic frequency range of a typical marine seismic source; Fig. 4 depicts the directivity of a linear array of seismic sources; Fig. 5 depicts the response of a 16 element linear array; and Fig. 6 is a polar response plot of a linear array.

Figs. I and 2 show a marine seismic exploration system. A vessel 11 traverses a seismic exploration path in surveying the subsurface formation 12 below the water layer 13. A linear horizontal array of seismic sources 14, 15, 16 and others is towed behing the boat by the cable 17.

Surface floast 18, 19, 20 and others help to maintain the equal spacing between the sources.

A hydrophone streamer 21 is also towed behind the boat. The first hydrophone in the array can be positioned anywhere from the boat out. Ideally, the first hydrophone is positioned directly opposite the center of the array of sources. A surface support buoy 22 helps to maintain the proper relationship between the hydrophone streamer and the source array. These are offset one from the other by a distance denoted by the arrow 23. This offset distance is such that the hydrophones in the streamer 21 are subject to horizontally propagated noise from the source array.

The sources in this array may be any suitable conventional type of air guns such as the type disclosed in U.S. patent 3,506,085. In such a gun, an electrical signal operates an electromagnetic valve to allow high pressure air to be suddenly released from a chamber within the gun, thereby producing a seismic pulse in the water.

Typically, air guns of this type have a capacity in the range of 80--200 cubic inches. The characteristic frequency range of the seismic pulse produced by a typical air gun is shown in Fig. 3, which depicts the amplitude of the acoustic seismic pulse as a function of frequency. As depicted in Fig.

3, the lowest frequency of the seismic pulse is effectively 10 Hz., the highest frequency is effectively 100 Hz., and the predominant frequency is about 30 Hz. The amplitude below 10 Hz, and above 100 Hz. is relatively low and may be ignored. It is desirable to make both the source array and the hydrophone array vertically directive to discriminate against horizontally propagating noise, of substantial amplitude, and to maximize the response of the hydrophones to the effective broad band frequency content of the seismic pulse such as that depicted in Fig. 3. Prior art attempts to maximize the response of hydrophones to the seismic pulse have configured the source array to obtain maximum response at the predominant frequency, for example, at 30 Hz. of the seismic pulse depicted in Fig. 3.

In accordance with this invention,the length 24 of the array, as depicted in Fig. 1, is longer than the wavelength of the effective lowest frequency of the seismic pulse. For example, when using air guns having effective frequency range depicted in Fig. 3, and assuming an acoustic velocity in water of 5,000 feet per second, the array is substantially longer than 5,000 =500 feet.

10 Further, in accordance with this invention, the spacing between the elements of the array, denoted by the arrow marked 25 in Fig. I, is less than the wavelength of the effective highest characteristic frequency in the pulse.

Again, referring to the example of the air gun having a characteristic frequency range depicted in Fig. 3, the spacing is not more than 5,000 =50 feet.

100 As one example of the practice of this invention, the total length of the array is 800 feet which is substantially longer than 500 feet. The array is made up of 16 guns spaced at 50 feet intervals.

The hydrophones in the streamer 21 may be have the same spacing and array length.

The reasons why such arrays provide vertical directivity and good response over the broad band of the seismic pulse will be understood from the following.

Directive arrays can be described with reference to Fig. 4. The directivity of the array is specified by AT which is the time required for a seismic pulse to travel from the source 26 to the point 27. Stated another way, it is the time required for a seismic pulse to travel from a source at one end of the array to the plane wave front of the pulses from other sources. AT is given by: Cos AT=n(T- AX ) (1) Vw In the fofegoing, n is the number of elements of the array, AX is the spacing between the elements, is the the pulse, Vw is the velocity of the seismic pulse in water and T is the time delay between the time of firing each source. The frequency of the seismic pulse is I,T. For the horizontal array of sources under consideration, T=O to obtain maximum vertical directivity.

The steady state response of the geophone streamer to such a linear array of sources is given by: AT Sin 7rAT/T (2) R( )=-.

T nA T/T This response is shown in Fig. 5.

In practice, the response of the system is determined by picking and Vw and computing AT from equation (1). For the example under consideration, Cos AT=(800) ( 5000 With this AT, various T's or frequencies are assigned to form the ratio AT,T. From the values of ATIT, the receiver response is determined from (2) above, or from the response curve in Fig. 5. A range of such values and responses are tabulated and can be plotted as polar response curves. Fig. 6 shows such curves. Fig. 6 depicts the response for a horizontal linear source array having 16 elements spaced at so feet with no delay between the sources.The polar response plot depicts the relative strength of seismic energy at a given frequency propagating at different angles when compared to that propagating from a point source. A point source has a polar response plot characterized by the circle of amplitude 1.0.

Note that for very large T, the range of values ATIT will be between 0 and 1. As T decreases, AT/T will increase beyond 1 and side lobes appear on the polar response plot (dotted curve). Curves are symmetrical about b=0 for case of T=O.

The horizontal arrays of this invention are particularly suitable for use where the sources are fired in separate groups to produce a seismic pulse having a time domain characteristic representative of the inverse of the distortion effect caused by reverberation in the water layer. Such a technique is described in published application in the Netherlands No. 7601413.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. A system for marine seismic exploration comprising: a marine vessel, a plurality of seismic energy sources each producing seismic pulses having a frequency content including the lowest frequency, the highest frequency and the predominant frequency of the seismic energy in each pulse, a plurality of hydrophones for detecting reflected seismic pulses, and means for towing said sources and said hydrophones in horizontal linear arrays behind said vessel with fixed spacing between said sources, fixed spacing between said hydrophones, and an offset distance between the array of sources and the array of hydrophones, the length of at least one of said arrays being longer than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially lowest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses, and the spacing between elements of said at least one array being no more than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially highest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one array is an array of sources.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one array is an array of hydrophones.

4. Apparatus for marine seismic exploration substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims (4)

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. In the fofegoing, n is the number of elements of the array, AX is the spacing between the elements, is the the pulse, Vw is the velocity of the seismic pulse in water and T is the time delay between the time of firing each source. The frequency of the seismic pulse is I,T. For the horizontal array of sources under consideration, T=O to obtain maximum vertical directivity. The steady state response of the geophone streamer to such a linear array of sources is given by: AT Sin 7rAT/T (2) R( )=-. T nA T/T This response is shown in Fig. 5. In practice, the response of the system is determined by picking and Vw and computing AT from equation (1). For the example under consideration, Cos AT=(800) ( 5000 With this AT, various T's or frequencies are assigned to form the ratio AT,T. From the values of ATIT, the receiver response is determined from (2) above, or from the response curve in Fig. 5. A range of such values and responses are tabulated and can be plotted as polar response curves. Fig. 6 shows such curves. Fig. 6 depicts the response for a horizontal linear source array having 16 elements spaced at so feet with no delay between the sources.The polar response plot depicts the relative strength of seismic energy at a given frequency propagating at different angles when compared to that propagating from a point source. A point source has a polar response plot characterized by the circle of amplitude 1.0. Note that for very large T, the range of values ATIT will be between 0 and 1. As T decreases, AT/T will increase beyond 1 and side lobes appear on the polar response plot (dotted curve). Curves are symmetrical about b=0 for case of T=O. The horizontal arrays of this invention are particularly suitable for use where the sources are fired in separate groups to produce a seismic pulse having a time domain characteristic representative of the inverse of the distortion effect caused by reverberation in the water layer. Such a technique is described in published application in the Netherlands No. 7601413. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A system for marine seismic exploration comprising: a marine vessel, a plurality of seismic energy sources each producing seismic pulses having a frequency content including the lowest frequency, the highest frequency and the predominant frequency of the seismic energy in each pulse, a plurality of hydrophones for detecting reflected seismic pulses, and means for towing said sources and said hydrophones in horizontal linear arrays behind said vessel with fixed spacing between said sources, fixed spacing between said hydrophones, and an offset distance between the array of sources and the array of hydrophones, the length of at least one of said arrays being longer than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially lowest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses, and the spacing between elements of said at least one array being no more than the wavelength corresponding to the substantially highest frequency within the frequency content of said seismic pulses.

2. The system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one array is an array of sources.

3. The system according to claim 1 wherein said at least one array is an array of hydrophones.

4. Apparatus for marine seismic exploration substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.