Microseismic Data Exchange Standards

Stewart A. LevinStanford University

And the whole earth was of onelanguage and of one speech.

Genesis 11:1Genesis 11:1The Tower of BabelThe Tower of Babel

What do we want?

• Unambiguous meanings

• Flexibility

• Comprehensive scope

• Efficiency

• Simple decoding

• Leverage existing standards (NIH)

• Protected by and protection from IP issues

Acceptance of SEG Standards

SEG-D

SEG SPS

SEG-Y

SEG ADS

SEG RODESEG RODE

SEG Polarity

Digital RecordersDigital Recorders

Marine Energy SourcesMarine Energy Sources

Marine StreamersMarine Streamers

MT/EMAPMT/EMAP

SEG P1,P2,P3

SEG SI Metric

SEG-2SEG-2

SEG A,B,C,EX

- OGP

SEG-D recap

• Acquisition data transfer and archive

• Four revisions since 1975 release

• Complex decoding– “I’d die first before using SEG-D!”

• Creation limited to approximately 50 manufacturers

SEG-Y recap

• Most often used for processed seismic delivery

• One revision* since 1975 release

• Simple decoding– 2 & 4 byte integer headers, integer or floating pt

samples

• Used by thousands of companies and institutions

* Undergoing second revision

SEG RODESEG RODE recap

• API RP66 standard applied to seismic

• Highly flexible– Can bundle all sorts of metadata with traces

• Quite complex– 20+ basic data types– Many bit field manipulations– SEG committee SEG-Y example wrong!

• Used by a small handful of companies

What do we really want?

(a) Long lifetime

(b) Simple format to read and write

or

(b’) Comprehensive format limited to a few specialists

Let’s talk microseismic

• Acquisition– Mix of passive and active data– Very long traces– Sensor orientations– Accurate time stamps– Precise locations– Sizeable ancillary data– In field processing, e.g. rotations

• All supported in SEG-D 3.0

Let’s talk microseismic

• Processing– Input SEG-D– Output is not seismic section

• Is there a need for a new/updated SEG standard?– No: Energistics project underway– Yes: SEG-Y upgrade underway– Maybe: SEG-2 upgrade proposal exists

An Invitation

SEG-Y rev 2 needs YOU!