METHOD FOR PROCESSING SEISMIC TRACES TO PROVIDE SEISMIC DATA WITH ENHANCED SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO

A method for processing seismic traces to provide enhanced signal-to-noise ratio in seismic data is provided. A seismic survey of traces is obtained which has been collected over an areal region containing a grid of nodes. Each node is ideally representative of a reflection point from which multiple traces have been collected in the seismic survey. A rolling supergather aperture is used to select a subregion containing a working subset of traces. A model subset of traces is selected from proximate the center of the working subregion. Most preferably, the traces from only the center most portion of the rolling supergather aperture are selected for inclusion in the model subset of traces. The model subset of traces are composited to form a model trace. A modified subset of traces is created by comparing the individual traces with the model trace using an alignment technique, which is preferably a time varying trim statics technique. These modified subsets of traces may then be composited into a reduced set of enhanced seismic traces having enhanced signal-to-noise ratio relative to the original seimic traces. The rolling supergather aperture is then incrementally moved until traces from all over the areal region are chosen and enhanced subsets of seismic traces have been assembled into a set of seismic data having enhanced signal-to-noise ratio. Further, the present invention includes a computer-readable medium containing executable code for processing seismic traces to provide seismic data with enhanced signal-to-noise ratio. The code, when executed, ideally carries out the above described steps.