Simulation of 3d seismic illumination and its application in seismic acquisition survey design - dual-source configuration (flip-flop)

An ideal seismic survey should produce an even seismic illumination on the subsurface horizons and adequately illuminate faults. Thus, in seismic acquisition survey design, simulated seismic illumination is usually among the first steps to perform. In this paper the authors discuss how to perform a 3D seismic illumination simulation on a model of the subsurface environment using the Ray tracing technology. The results of the seismic illumination process using the Ray-Tracing method (ray propagation model) for the study area generate various Illumination-related maps to help assessing and optimizing the effectiveness of any particular seismic survey configuration. The paper also applied this technology to models and real-field data with a dual-source (flip-flop) configuration, producing various illumination map results to illustrate the effectiveness.