Sergey Fomel
sergey.fomel@beg.utexas.edu
John A. and Katherine G. Jackson School of Geosciences
The University of Texas at Austin
University Station, Box X
Austin, TX 78713-8924
Structural information is the most important content of seismic
images. I introduce a numerical algorithm for spreading information
in 3-D volumes according to the local structure of seismic
events. The algorithm consists of two steps. First, local
spatially-variable inline and crossline slopes of seismic events are
estimated by the plane-wave-destruction method. Next, a seed trace
is inserted in the volume, and the information contained in that
trace is spread inside the volume, thus automatically ``painting''
the data space. Immediate applications of this technique include
automatic horizon picking and flattening in applications to both
prestack and post-stack seismic data analysis. Synthetic and field
data tests demonstrate the effectiveness of predictive painting.