Towards a surface consistent match filter (SCMF) for time-lapse processing

Mahdi H. Al Mutlaq, Gary F. Margrave

This paper presents a new idea for designing a match filter for processing time-lapse seismic data in a surface consistent manner. We extend the surface consistent data model to the case of designing matching filters to equalize two seismic surveys in the leastsquare sense. The frequency-domain surface-consistent design equations are similar to those for surface consistent deconvolution except that the data term is the spectral ratio of two surveys. To test this concept we have built a time-lapse synthetic dataset (baseline and monitor) whose subsurface (the reservoir) is unchanging but which show surfaceconsistent variability. Our synthetic dataset models acquisition over a simple stratigraphic reservoir in both summer and winter. Initial results are encouraging but suggest that our software is not yet optimal.