Now you see it, now you don't: radial trace filtering tutorial

David C. Henley

The radial trace domain has been shown to be useful for modeling and attenuating source-generated coherent noise on raw seismic trace gathers. While the general principles are well-known, some of the variations of the method are not, and the details of the analysis and design process have never been explicitly outlined. We demonstrate here a general strategy for analyzing coherent noise on input gathers and designing a filter sequence for removal of the noise. The strategy is a subjective one, and it relies on the judgement of the processor at each stage to determine how much filtering is "enough". The process is illustrated with screen-captured ProMAX processing flows, as well as pre- and post-processing images of trace gathers. We give recommendations for parameter selection and show an overall processing flow, explaining the presence of each ProMAX module. We also show the details for two 'specialty' coherent noise attenuation methods utilizing the properties of the radial trace domain.