High-Precision Waveform Stacking Location Method for Microseismic Events Based on S-Transform

The waveform stacking location method achieves microseismic source localization by computing characteristic functions (CFs) and stacking multi-channel data, without phase picking. It has been widely applied in geotechnical engineering. However, the low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) caused by weak event energy and ambient noise often degrades localization accuracy. To enhance the localization precision and stability under low SNR conditions, this study employs the Stockwell transform (S-transform) to convert noisy time-domain data into the time-frequency domain. By analyzing the energy distribution of microseismic signal and noise in the time-frequency domain, frequency and time coefficients are introduced to enhance the energy of microseismic signal. Event location is achieved through the computation of CFs and multiple-cross-correlation stacking. Comparison of the location results when computing the CFs by the new method, the short-term average to long-term average ratio (STA/LTA) method, and the envelope (Env) method under varying noise levels demonstrates the superior noise resistance and improved localization accuracy of the new method. Finally, the effectiveness of the new method is validated using real seismic data collected from a coal mine.