Seismic Imaging

HPC for Seismic Data Processing

We account for the enhanced requirements, by utilising modern concepts of high performance computing (HPC) for the development of methods of seismic data processing. Seismic data sets become increasingly bigger and cover larger and larger parts of the subsurfaces. On the other hand, solid conclusions about the potentiality of a structure can only be drawn if details that are very small compared to the overall problem size are interpreted. In conclusion, the demand for high efficiency of the calculations should not compromise the accury of the results.

Measured seismic data must be processed by a lengthy processing sequence whose components are chosen in accordance with  the acquisition geometry, the data quality, and the questions to be answered with help of the data. At ITWM, we have a strong focus on the method of seismic migration. This methodolgy can be understood as high-dimensional data mapping and generates images of the subsurface that can be interpreted by geologists. However, results of seismic migration are not directly eligible to this interpretation. They must be further conditioned in order to guarantee the data quality and accuracy needed. Techniques like time series analysis, multi-dimensional filtering and data transformations are used for this purpose. Tools developed for this purpose became part of the PSPRO interpretation and processing software.

Our Portfolio of Projects and Products in the Oil- and Gas Market Comprises:

• Development of algorithms and production-ready software solutions for seismic data processing
• Optimization and parallelization of clients' software
• Special processing of true-amplitude prestack migration plus data conditioning

The method of reflection seismology scales across a large range of wavelengths. It can, thus, also be applied to shallow targets and, e.g., be used to answer questions about stability of constructions as, e.g., wind power plants.