Application of internal multiple prediction: from synthetic to lab to land data

Melissa Judith Hernandez Quijada, Kristopher A. Innanen

Multiple reflections represent a serious problem in the field of seismic processing. Multiple events can be mistaken for primary reflections, and may distort primary events and obscure the task of interpretation. In this work we will focus in the prediction of internal multiples and we will illustrate how the inverse scattering internal multiple algorithm introduced by Weglein and Araujo in 1994, is capable to attenuate internal multiples without any a priori information about the medium through which the waves propagate. One of the advantages of this method over other is its ability to suppress multiples that interfere with primaries without attenuating the primaries themselves. I consider the version of the algorithm for 1D normal incidence case.

In this work we promote a stepped approach to predicting multiples in a given field data set: first, by carrying out synthetic/numerical examples; second by carrying out tests on laboratory physical modeling data; and finally by testing prediction of a field data set suspected to be strongly contaminated with internal multiples.