Print this pageAAPG GEO 2010 Middle East
Geoscience Conference & Exhibition
Innovative Geoscience Solutions – Meeting Hydrocarbon Demand in Changing Times
March 7-10, 2010 – Manama, Bahrain
An Analysis of the Near Surface Using Remote Sensing for the Prediction of Logistics and Data Quality Risk
(1) WesternGeco, Gatwick Airport, United Kingdom.
Remote sensing offers the unique ability to view the earth’s surface without actually being in contact with it. Using multi-spectral satellite data and Digital Elevation Models (DEM) a workflow is presented to build a topography and a lithology based classification of the near surface. This enables the creation of logistics and data quality (surface scatter and surface velocity) risk maps :
1.) Logistics planning: areas that are rough, rocky, have uneven terrain or extreme soft ground will provide significant logistical issues.
2.) Impact of the terrain on data quality: terrain edges and escarpments represent sources for scattering as do geomorphologic boundaries; areas of low surface velocity usually bear a high risk for attenuation of high frequencies and ringing of trapped modes.
The geomorphologic analysis based on DEM and multi-spectral remote sensing data extracts spatially dense information at a resolution of 15 m, which is sufficient for logistics, acquisition and data processing. The logistic risks represented by limitations for access and maneuver and the data quality risk from scattering, attenuation, coupling perturbation and reverberations can be mapped. Histograms for the risk categories can assist in risk assessment during seismic survey design and bidding. The technique has been validated successfully by surface geology sampling and photos as well as correlation with seismic data in the Western Desert of Egypt. The results demonstrate that the interpretation of remote sensing data allow the prediction of risks associated with land seismic acquisition.