Research Note: Signal‐to‐noise ratio computation for challenging land single‐sensor seismic data
Andrey Bakulin, Ilya Silvestrov, M. Protasov
Abstract
ABSTRACT This study explores practical methods of estimating the signal‐to‐noise ratio of challenging seismic data containing a signal too small to be identified visually, as often occurring in a desert environment with single‐sensor surveys. As a result, the estimation can only be performed using an ensemble of traces. We compare several data‐driven estimation approaches and reveal their practical limits using a controlled experiment. We identify a stacking‐based method as the most robust with the broadest range of applicability. We relate the number of traces in the ensemble to the lowest reliably estimated absolute signal‐to‐noise ratio possible with this method using such an ensemble. We support the findings using synthetic and single‐sensor field data with low signal‐to‐noise ratios down to ‐60 dB. The proposed methodology allows reliable data‐driven estimation of very low absolute signal‐to‐noise ratios directly from pre‐stack seismic data.