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Chapter 8
Enhancement of Later Events in the
RCS with Dip Filtering
8.1 - Summary
Later events, which occur in the shot records, are also treated in the same
manner as first events with the convolution process. Both the addition of the
traveltimes and the multiplication of amplitudes take place. However, there can
be additional features in which cross-convolution artifacts are also generated.
These artifacts which are formed by the convolution of events from different
refractors, occur as relatively steeply dipping events in the refraction convolution
section (RCS) and therefore, they can be removed by dip filtering. The filtered
RCS shows better continuity of events than is the case with the unfiltered
section.
For events which have traveled through the surface layer, the filtered RCS shows
a series of events which occur at a time which is a function of the distance
between the two shot points and the wavespeed in the surface layer. The time of
this event can be used to improve the estimates of the wavespeed in the surface
layer.
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8.2 - Introduction
The generation of the refraction convolution section (RCS) (Palmer, 2000)
produces a set of traces with the superficial appearance of a seismic reflection
section. It has been demonstrated that the RCS reproduces the time structure of
the refractor interface with first arrivals, while the amplitudes which are largely
corrected for geometric spreading, are essentially a function of the square of the
head coefficient. It has also been demonstrated that the head coefficient is given
approximately by the ratio of the wavespeeds in the upper layer and refractor.
The RCS amplitudes can be employed to image the refractor, to resolve some of
the ambiguities in the determination of wavespeeds in the refractor, and to obtain
a measure of azimuthal anisotropy with three dimensional methods.
To date, research has focused primarily on the portion of the RCS which
corresponds with the first arrivals, and little attention has been directed at later
events. However, the convolution process performs the same operations on later
arrivals as it does with the first events. These operations are the addition of the
traveltimes in the forward and reverse directions, which replaces of moveout from
trace to trace with a constant amount equal to the reciprocal time, the time from
the forward shot point to the reverse shot point, and the multiplication of the
amplitudes. The addition of the traveltimes produces the relative time structure
on the refracting interface, while the amplitude product effectively compensates
for the large geometric spreading which is characteristic of refraction data. The
true time structure on the interface can be obtained by subtracting the reciprocal
time. As the reciprocal time generally decreases with deeper layers, the
shallower layers occur at later times in the RCS.
One feature of the RCS is the generation of what will be termed cross-
convolution events with later arrivals. In this case, the convolution operation
adds arrivals from different refractors, and therefore generates artifacts which
have no geophysical significance. For example, it is possible to produce an
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event which is the addition of the traveltimes from the refractor in the forward
direction, with the traveltimes from the surface layer in the reverse direction. In
practice, these artifacts occur as pairs, that is there is also an event produced by
the addition of the traveltimes from the surface layer in the forward direction, with
the traveltimes from the refractor in the reverse direction. Because of the
different moveouts or wavespeeds, these events appear as relatively steeply
dipping features in the RCS.
This study describes the use of dip filtering in the f-k domain (Sheriff and Geldart,
1995), to remove the cross-convolution events, with the aim of enhancing those
later events which may have geological significance.
8.3 - Generation of Useful Events and Artifacts in the RCS
The generation of useful later events in the RCS can best be demonstrated with
the ground-coupled air wave. While it is recognized that the imaging of the air
wave has minimal geological significance, it is employed in this study because its
high amplitude improves its clarity in the RCS.
Figure 8.1 is a shot record from a shallow seismic refraction survey at Mt Bulga,
which has been described previously (Palmer, 2001). The record shows the first
arrivals between about 70 ms and 130 ms as very low amplitude signals, and a
very high amplitude event between 350 ms and 1000 ms. The first arrivals are
refracted from the base of the weathering, while the second arrivals are the
ground-coupled air wave.
Figure 8.2 shows the shot record in the reverse direction. The same two events
can be clearly identified, but in this case, the relative amplitude of the ground-
coupled air wave is lower.
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Figure 8.1: A shot record showing low amplitude first arrivals between about 70
ms and 130 ms refracted from the base of the weathering, and the high
amplitude ground-coupled air wave between 350 ms and 1000 ms.
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Figure 8.2: Reverse shot record in the reverse direction. The relative amplitude
of the ground-coupled air wave between 350 ms and 1000 ms is lower.
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Figure 8.3: The RCS generated with the two shots shown in Figures 8.1 and
8.2. The sampling interval has been halved but there has been no subtraction of
a reciprocal time.
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The RCS generated with these two shots is shown in Figure 8.3. The sampling
interval has been halved (Palmer, 2001), but there has been no subtraction of a
reciprocal time. The presentation gain is low so that the portion of the RCS
which corresponds with the convolved events from the refractor around 150 ms,
becomes essentially featureless. However, the gain facilitates the recognition of
the strong event at approximately 700 ms between stations 29 and 68. The
limited lateral extent of this event occurs because the recording time of one
second was insufficient to record the air wave at the distant detectors.
In addition, the presentation gain highlights the cross-convolution events which
start a few traces from the left side of the section at 300 ms and continue to
about 550 ms near the right side of the section. The recognition of the
companion artifact which starts on the right hand side and finishes on the left is
not as clearly evident in Figure 8.3 and requires more careful inspection.
8.4 - Removal of Cross-convolution Artifacts with Dip Filtering
The transformation of the in RCS in Figure 8.3 from the time-distance domain to
the frequency-wavenumber (fk) domain with the double Fourier transform, is
shown in Figure 8.4. It shows signal centered on the frequency axis, which
corresponds with the horizontal events, and signal spread out parallel to the
wavenumber axis, which is inferred to correspond with the cross-convolution
events.
Figure 8.6 shows the fk domain after the application of a filter to remove all signal
other than that centered on the frequency axis, while Figure 8.5 shows the RCS
after the application of the filter. The event which corresponds with the time-
depth of the ground-coupled air wave can be clearly seen at about 0.710 s.
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Figure 8.4: The transformation of the in RCS in Figure 8.3 from the time-distance
domain to the frequency-wavenumber (fk) domain with the double Fourier
transform.
Figure 8.6: The transformation of the in RCS in Figure 8.5 from the time-
distance domain to the frequency-wavenumber (fk) domain with the double
Fourier transform.
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Figure 8.5: Refraction convolution section in Figure 8.3 after dip filtering to
remove cross-convolution events.
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8.5 - Times for Near-surface Events in the Uncorrected RCS
The RCS in Figure 8.5 which has not been corrected by the subtraction of a
reciprocal time, facilitates the computation of wavespeeds for the near surface
layers.
The traveltime in the forward direction t
forward
, of a seismic signal travelling
through a near-surface layer, that is, for which the depth can be ignored is
t
forward
= x / V
1
(8.1)
Similarly, the traveltime in the reverse direction t
reverse
, at the same detector is
t
reverse
= (d x) / V
1
(8.2)
where x is the forward shot-to-detector distance and d is the separation between
the forward and reverse shot points, and V
1
is the wavespeed in the near-surface
layer.
In the RCS in Figure 8.5, these times are firstly summed, then halved, and they
occur at a time t
RCS
, where:
t
RCS
= d / 2 V
1
(8.3)
It can be readily shown that the ground-coupled airwaves in Figures 1 and 2 has
wavespeeds of about 335 m/s. Using a value of d, the shot point to shot point
distance, of 480 m, the value of t
RCS
computed with equation is 0.716 s. This
value is similar to that measured above in Figure 8.5.
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Figure 8.7: Shot record with shot point at station 26.
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8.6 - Near-surface Wavespeeds from the Uncorrected RCS
Figures 8.7 and 8.8 are two shot records with shot points at the ends of the
geophone spread at stations 26 and 73. The presentation gains are low to
facilitate recognition of a series of events with a wavespeed of approximately 400
m/s, that is, they arrive at the geophones most distant from the shot points after
about 0.600 s. These events occur over an interval of about 0.15 s, and they are
interpreted to be arrivals from the near-surface layer, rather than the ground-
coupled airwave, because of their lower frequency and inferior continuity
compared to the ground-coupled airwaves in Figures 8.1 and 8.2.
A comparison of the unfiltered and filtered RCS in Figures 8.9 and 8.10, shows
that the dip filtering has removed the cross-convolution events, and that the
horizontal and near-horizontal events are emphasized.
Using equation 8.3, it is readily demonstrated that the group of events with the
wavespeeds of 400 m/s should occur at a time t
RCS
, of 0.3 s. Figure 8.10 shows
a series of events from about 0.33 s to about 0.47 s with higher amplitudes than
the adjacent events. These events are interpreted to represent signals which
have traveled in the surface soil layer. Using the minimum time of 0.33 s and
equation 8.3, the revised wavespeed for this layer is 360 m/s.
It is also possible to recognize a series of events from about 0.18 s with higher
amplitudes than the adjacent events. These events may correspond with arrivals
which travel through the second layer with a wavespeed of approximately 700
m/s.
While the event associated with the ground-coupled air wave convincingly
demonstrates the generation of meaningful later events in the RCS, the
application to events from the near-surface layers is not as clear. It is likely that
further processing, such as deconvolution may be useful. However initial
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attempts at simple deconvolution methods were not successful, suggesting that
considerably more research may be required to develop suitable techniques.
Figure 8.8: Reverse shot record with shot point at station 73.
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Figure 8.9: Unfiltered convolution section.
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Figure 8.10: Dip filtered convolution section.
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8.7 - Conclusions
Later events, which occur in the shot records, are also treated in the same
manner as first events with the convolution process. Both the addition of the
traveltimes and the multiplication of amplitudes take place. However, there is an
additional feature in which cross-convolution artifacts are also generated. These
artifacts occur as relatively steeply dipping events in the RCS and therefore, they
can be removed by dip filtering. The filtered RCS shows better continuity of
events than is the case with the unfiltered section.
For events which have traveled through the surface layer, the filtered RCS shows
a series of events which occur at a time which is a function of the distance
between the two shot points and the wavespeed in the surface layer. The time of
this event can be used to improve the estimates of the wavespeed in the surface
layer.
8.8 - References
Palmer, D., 2001, Imaging refractors with the convolution section: Geophysics
66, 1582-1589.
Sheriff, R. E., and Geldart, L. P., 1995, Exploration Seismology, 2
nd
edition:
Cambridge University Press.