ARTICLE

Negative reflection: a path to virtual seismic acquisition

LUC T. IKELLE
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CASP Project, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-3115, U.S.A.,
JSE 2009, 18(3), 199–214;
Submitted: 22 August 2008 | Accepted: 12 March 2009 | Published: 1 July 2009
© 2009 by the Authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution -Noncommercial 4.0 International License (CC-by the license) ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ )
Abstract

Ikelle, L.T., 2009. Negative reflection: a path to virtual seismic acquisition. Journal of Seismic Exploration, 18: 199-214. We here describe one way of constructing data with sources and receivers inside the subsurface from standard data with sources and receivers near the sea surface for offshore, or at the earth’s surface for onshore. This construct is based on the recently introduced concept of negative reflection. Negative reflection reflections (also known as virtual events) are wave-scattering events whose first and last bends of wave-propagation paths are parallel. Such events are not recorded in seismic wave-scattering experiments, but they can be constructed from seismic data. When the negative reflection data are used together with seismic data, the abnormal bending of negative reflections allows us to simulate situations in which sources and receivers are located in the subsurface. The benefits of putting the sources and receivers in the ground includes improving the imaging of deep reflectors such as below-subsalt reflectors and below-subbasalt reflectors.

Keywords
virtual events
negative reflection
Snell’s law
scattering diagrams
convolutive-type representation theorem
correlation-type representation theorem
seismic data acquisition
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing