US 12,147,003 B1
Beam tomography systems and methods
Nicolay Tanushev, Houston, TX (US); Iulian F. Musat, Katy, TX (US); Ioan Sturzu, Houston, TX (US); and Alexander M. Popovici, Katy, TX (US)
Assigned to Z Terra, Inc., Houston, TX (US)
Filed by Z TERRA INC., Houston, TX (US)
Filed on Apr. 30, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/864,046.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/840,666, filed on Apr. 30, 2019.
Int. Cl. G01V 1/28 (2006.01); G01V 1/30 (2006.01); G01V 1/34 (2006.01)
CPC G01V 1/282 (2013.01) [G01V 1/303 (2013.01); G01V 1/345 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A seismic data processing method comprising employing a computer system including at least one processor to:
generate a plurality of seismic data beams according to seismic trace data characterizing a subsurface volume;
for a selected beam of the plurality of beams, identify a beam group comprising the selected beam and a set of beams meeting a relatedness condition relative to the selected beam;
determine a set of relative inter-beam time or depth shifts that align the beam group in time or depth;
build a tomography matrix according to a plurality of relative inter-beam time or depth shifts determined for a plurality of corresponding beam groups;
perform a tomographic update of a velocity model characterizing the subsurface volume according to the tomography matrix to generate an updated velocity model for generating a seismic image of the subsurface volume; and
generate the seismic image of the subsurface volume according to the updated velocity model, thereby reducing imaging artifacts in the seismic image.