Improvement of P-data using 3-C seismic data

Maria Silvia Donati, Robert R. Stewart

The separation of the individual P and S arrivals may be considered a problem since the P and SV data are recorded in both vertical and horizontal (in-line) geophones. Due to the intrinsic geophone characteristics, P and S waves are observed on both geophones. A method of separating P and S waves in the -p domain is presented which inverts both vertical and horizontal geophone records for the receiving characteristics, thereby separating the two wavetypes.

The filter coefficients are determined from the near-surface P and S wave velocity and from the geometry of the geophone groups. The P/S separation was tested using synthetic and real data. In both cases, the method is demonstrated capable of separating PS and SP converted reflections and appears to be stable and have low sensitivity to errors in the near-surface P and S wave velocity and to noise in the data.