Seismic Polarization Filtering: Noise Reduction and Off-line Imaging

Ye Zheng

The polarization direction of a P-wave is generally in the propagation direction of the seismic wave. We can distinguish the propagation direction by measuring the polarization direction. In this thesis, the noise effect on polarization direction is studied. Computer code for the polarization filter was developed. Numerical and physical modeling data were used to separate in-line and off-line energy by the polarization filter. The results indicate that it is possible to build an off-line image from three-component seismic data, if the data have a reasonable signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio. If S/N ratio is too low, some techniques like common-mid-point (CMP) stacking can be used to enhance signal before polarization filtering. The polarization filter is applied to the field data from Rumsey area of central Alberta to reject the off-line energy and enhance in-line energy.