Field
Productivity: Challenge to Manufacturers of
Field
Systems
Tawassul A. Khan, E. Lynard Olsen
Three main requirements in the design of a field
system help to improve
seismic
field
productivity: (1) fast execution time, (2) simultaneous execution
of several unrelated tasks, and (3) capability of multi-function recording.
Multi-function recording relates to the various options available that provide
multiple choices of using seismic sources, receivers, arrays,
data
transmission,
and
data
-processing methods. These features allow one to use the recording
system to the best advantage under changing geologic and
field
conditions.
Faster execution time is necessary when dealing with large numbers of channels
and high sample rates. Simultaneous execution of
data
transmission,
data
processing, monitoring, and quality control are needed for a realtime recording
system. Multi-function recording provides capabilities like multi-functions
(receiver, source, array, weight, correlate, etc) that have been specifically
developed to provide considerable improvements in the
field
production.
Using the multi-receiver method, one can record two, three, or four times the
data
corresponding to the ground stations in relation to the number of
data
channels being transmitted to the system recorder. For
example
, using a
data
encoding technique, geophone outputs from 240 or 360 ground stations can be
transmitted using only 120
data
channels. Realtime decoding in the system
recorder separates the
data
belonging to each ground station and outputs the
original 240 or 360 seismic traces to the final tape. Similarly, the Multisource
method uses different source encoding techniques that can be decoded in real
time to provide higher CDP fold or multiple line recording.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91035©1988 AAPG-SEPM-SEG Pacific Sections and SPWLA Annual Convention, Santa Barbara, California, 17-19 April 1988.