Wind noise abatement for 3-C geophones

Henry C. Bland, Eric V. Gallant

Wind noise can seriously degrade seismic data quality. An experiment was designed to measure the effect of wind noise on 3-C geophones. Geophones were planted in a test patch and subjected to varying amounts of wind. Noise data was acquired from the geophones and correlated to wind speed. The data indicate that it is possible to isolate and measure wind-noise on geophones. Different geophone planting techniques were evaluated based on their susceptibility to wind noise. These evaluations show that it is advantageous to bury 3-C geophones since the signal to noise ratio improves by approximately 3 dB for every 10 cm of depth. The analysis of experimental data also shows that vertical elements in 3-C geophones are about 3 dB less sensitive to wind noise than horizontal elements.