Iterative least-square inversion for amplitude balancing

INTRODUCTION

In 1994, Mobil provided SEP with a marine dataset on which we were to perform an amplitude variation with offset (AVO) analysis. However, Berlioux and Lumley (1994) showed that the amplitude of the traces in the survey present anomalies that need to be preprocessed prior to the AVO analysis.

Fluctuations of the source strength and the receiver amplitudes as well as near-surface irregularities can create amplitude anomalies. It is therefore often necessary to balance the amplitude of each trace in the survey.

To do so we determine the source, receiver, and offset amplitude balancing coefficients by using an iterative least-square algorithm. We then apply these scaling factors to the original 2-D amplitude map to cancel the effect of the impulse response of the defective sources and receivers, and to compensate for irregularities of the sea bottom.