Enhanced subsurface edge detection using a 3D integration operator

Abstract Orientation analysis is widely employed in edge and line detection and is an important step in object detection and illumination. The direct application of a 3D integration orientation operator to a seismic image is proposed to enhance efficiency and improve delineation of subsurface edges. The primary objective in doing so is to overcome the weaknesses associated with gradient operator-based edge detections, namely, noise sensitivity due to using a fixed smoothing window and orientation bias of the gradient operators. Our study shows that the application of a 3D integration operator to a seismic data volume results in more coherent edges than the gradient-based Sobel operator. In addition, the computation efficiency improves significantly in comparison to a direct 2D integration operator.