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DOMAINS AND TRANSFORMS




Seismic data is recorded into what is termed the time-domain. Several common
processing routines transform the data into a new domain, perform some kind of
operation and then the inverse routine is used to reverse the transform. The purpose of
this procedure is to find a domain where signal can be more easily be separated from
noise and filtered or muted out. It is often easier to understand noise types and design a
filter with the data transformed into the new domain. A filter is applied to data to alter it
in a manner calculated to improve its quality in some way by removing noise (unwanted
signal). Muting refers to the process of zeroing unwanted data samples to improve data
quality and is therefore a crude filter. In theory, if no operation were performed the
output would be identical to the input, however this is not always the case in practise
because of approximations made in the transform stages. Another reason for using
transforms is computational efficiency. In the recent past when computer power was
minimal and computer time was expensive then the often minimal loss in accuracy (or
introduction of artifacts) using transforms was considered acceptable compared to the
computer time saved. Modern computer systems may not need such transforms to
perform operations efficiently, however much of the historical literature will be written
from this perspective. The user is unlikely to notice the differences on the final processed
data whichever way the routines are implemented, although some of the parameter
choices may differ in order to minimise artifacts.




COMMON TRANSFORMS AND PROCEDURES
FOURIER TRANSFORM






The Fourier Transform is by far the most important used in seismology. Fourier's
theory states that a given signal can be synthesised as a summation of sinusoidal
waves of various amplitudes, frequencies and phases. Using the Fourier
Transform a time domain signal is transformed to the frequency domain where it
is equivalent to an Amplitude Spectrum and aPhase Spectrum. The adjacent
figure shows a simple time domain wavelet transformed into it's frequency
domain components. The F-X or w -x domain is also shown. Basically this is a one-
dimensional Fourier Transform over time of usually of a gather or group of traces
(hence the x-dimension). A process operating in this domain will mix or alter the
amplitude spectra of the group of traces before the inverse transform is applied.
Since there is only a single trace in the figure the F-X domain here just represents
a different view of the amplitude spectrum. The figure was created with PROMAX
routine Interactive Spectral Analysis.
Many operations e.g. bandpass frequency filtering are easier to understand in the
frequency domain. The Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is applied to a digitised
time series, and the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a computer algorithm for
rapid DFT computations. The latter imposes the restriction that the time series
must be a power of two samples long e.g. 512, 1024 which is usually achieved by
padding seismic traces with extra zeros.



CONVOLUTION

CONVOLUTION: Is a mathematical way of combining two signals to achieve a third,
modified signal. The signal we record seems to respond well to being treated as a series
of signals superimposed upon each other that is seismic signals seem to respond
convolutionally. The process of DECONVOLUTION is the reversal of the convolution
process. Convolution in the time domain is represented in the frequency domain by a
multiplying the amplitude spectra and adding the phase spectra. The adjacent figure
shows a spike series representing an acoustic impedance response from the earth which
is convolved (*) with a source wavelet to produce a resulting seismic signal which is
measured. In principal by deconvolving the source wavelet we could obtain the earth's
reflectivity. However, noise (unwanted signal) and other features are also present in the
recorded trace and the source wavelet is rarely known with any accuracy. In the figure
(a) the spikes are sufficiently separated that the convolution just results in a duplication
of the input wavelet at the spike times and with the spike amplitudes. The convolution
process just involves multiplying every sample of the spike series by the input wavelet
and adding all the results. In (b) the spikes are closer together and interference occurs
in the resulting trace. If the wavelet were known the input spike series could be
discovered by the deconvolution process. The convolutional model of the seismic trace
states that the trace we record is the result of the earth's reflectivity (what we want)
convolved with the source wavelet (and it's ghosts), multiples, the recording system and
some noise.

CORRELATION

CROSS-CORRELATION: Is a statistical measure used to compare
two signals as a function of the time shift (lag) between
them. AUTOCORRELATION is a special case where the signal is
compared with itself for a variety of time shifts (lags) and is
particularly useful for detecting repeating periods within signals in the
presence of noise. The autocorrelation function is often normalised so
that its maximum value at zero lag is 1 (where the signal is correlated
with itself). The adjacent figure shows the autocorrelation function of a
simple trace with two separated peaks. Figure (c) shows that the
autocorrelation clearly identifies the repeated wavelet in the input time
series by the peak at 100ms. The autocorrelation has a zero-phase
spectrum. Both auto- and cross-correlation functions are required in
the suppression of multiple reflections by predictive deconvolution.








WAVELET ANALYSIS


A wavelet is a term used to describe a short time series (typically less than 100 samples) which
can be used to represent, for example, the source function. As previously shown, the wavelet
can be studied as a time series in the time domain or in the frequency domain as an amplitude
or phase spectrum. For any amplitude spectrum there are an infinite number of time domain
wavelets which can be constructed by varying the phase spectrum. There are two special
types of phase spectra of specific interest.
The minimum phase wavelet has a short time duration and a concentration of energy at the
start of the wavelet. It is zero before time zero (causal). An ideal seismic source would be a
spike (maximum amplitude at every frequency), but the best practical one would be minimum
phase. It is quite common to convert a given wavelet source wavelet into it's minimum phase
equivalent since several processing stages (e.g. predictive deconvolution) work best by
assuming that the input data is minimum phase. The maximum phase wavelet is the time
reverse of the minimum phase and at every point the phase is greater for the maximum than
the minimum. All other causal wavelets are strictly speaking mixed-phase and will be of
longer time duration. The convolution of two minimum phase wavelets is minimum phase.
The zero-phase wavelet is of shorter duration than the minimum phase equivalent. The
wavelet is symmetrical with a maximum at time zero (non-causal). The fact that energy arrives
before time zero is not physically realisable but the wavelet is useful for increased resolving
power and ease of picking reflection events (peak or trough). The convolution of a zero-phase
and minimum phase wavelet is mixed phase (because the phase spectrum of the original
minimum phase wavelet is not the unique minimum phase spectrum for the new modified
wavelet) and should be avoided.
A special type of wavelet often used for modelling purposes is the Ricker wavelet which is
defined by it's dominant frequency. The Ricker wavelet is by definition zero-phase, but a
minimum phase equivalent can be constructed. The Ricker wavelet is used because it is simple
to understand and often seems to represent a typical earth response.
WIENER FILTERING: To find the filter to shape a wavelet to another wavelet is not an exact process, but the filter which produces the closest result can be obtained by a mathematical technique known as least
squares. The Wiener filter is that which best (in a least squares sense) shapes a given wavelet to a desired wavelet. Applications include shaping a source wavelet to it's minimum phase equivalent, shaping a wavelet
within the data to a spike (to improve resolution) or to shape a time-series with multiples to one without multiples (predictive deconvolution). Without going into the mathematics it turns out that the filter is found
by dividing the cross-correlation of the input with the desired output by the auto-correlation of the input. This solution sets up a series of simultaneous equations which are solved rapidly in the computer by matrix
inversion using the Levinson algorithm. A certain percentage of noise (called white noise or white light) is added to stabilise the inversion program.