A happy ocean bottom node is one that is oriented the same way as all of its friends. When you have 1000 or more friends then it becomes impractical to manually check that every node is in its happy place!
A fast, reliable, automated QC tool is needed. At DUG we use “quarternions” to explain the 3-component amplitude distribution given the source-receiver geometry. By exploiting the geophone dipole response and using a statistical analysis we can quickly and efficiently spot unhappy nodes and cheer them up.
Quarternions!? What are quarternions?
Quarternions are a versatile mathematical tool used in computer animation and robotics. They allow precise 3D rotations to be calculated and adjusted with a number of practical advantages (for example they allow smooth interpolation and avoid the phenomenon of gimbal lock). At DUG we use them during processing to smoothly and efficiently reorient nodes in 3D space.
Check out these results:
DUG’s OBN Orientation QC workflow simultaneously solves for a range of properties that includes:
- Node orientation
- Node location and depth
- Clock drift
- Source shift
- Water velocity
- Vector fidelity scalars
- Polarity
Once derived corrections have been analysed, they can easily be applied to the whole dataset.
DUG’s combination of industry-leading algorithms, massive HPC capacity and experienced geophysicists deliver exceptional results, fast.
Node doubt about it!
Let’s talk—contact us here.
