Systems and methods for seismic data acquisition employing asynchronous, decoupled data sampling and transmission

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9753164-B2
Application number	US-201314023224-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 10, 2013
Priority date	Mar 8, 2007
Publication date	Sep 5, 2017
Grant date	Sep 5, 2017

Abstract

Systems and methods for asynchronously acquiring seismic data are described, one system comprising one or more seismic sources, a plurality of sensor modules each comprising a seismic sensor, an A/D converter for generating digitized seismic data, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a sensor module clock; a seismic data recording station; and a seismic data transmission sub-system comprising a high precision clock, the sub-system allowing transmission of at least some of the digitized seismic data to the recording station, wherein each sensor module is configured to periodically receive from the sub-system an amount of the drift of its clock relative to the high precision clock. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract to ascertain the subject matter of the disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A seismic data acquisition system comprising:
one or more seismic sources;
a plurality of sensor modules configured to asynchronously sample seismic data, each sensor module comprising an analog seismic sensor, an A/D converter (ADC) for generating digitized seismic data, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a sensor module clock;
a seismic data recording station; and
a high precision clock,
wherein each sensor module is configured to:
periodically receive a reference clock signal from the high precision clock,
calculate an amount of drift of a clock signal of the sensor module relative to the reference clock signal,
use an interpolation technique to adjust for the drift;
wherein each DSP is configured to upsample digitized seismic data at a first fixed sampling rate relative to the high precision clock; and
wherein the digitized seismic data is upsampled by each DSP using the interpolation technique selected from linear and nonlinear interpolation, based on the amount of drift of each sensor module clock relative to the high precision clock, to increase each sensor module's effective sampling rate.

2. The system of claim 1 , adapted to perform land seismic data acquisition.

3. The system of claim 1 , adapted to perform marine seismic data acquisition.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein each DSP is configured to periodically downsample the digitized seismic data at a second fixed sampling rate relative to the high precision clock.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each sensor module clock has a nominal drift, and each sensor module is configured to periodically calculate an amount of the drift of its clock relative to the high precision clock based on the nominal drift of the sensor module's clock.

6. The system of claim 1 , comprising one or more base stations located strategically to receive the digitized seismic data from corresponding one or more groups of sensor modules via first wireless links.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein at least one group of sensor modules relays at least some of the digitized seismic data wirelessly within the group from sensor module to sensor module via a communication topology selected from a partial mesh topology, a mesh topology, and a star topology.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein at least one group of sensor modules relays data packets wirelessly within the group from sensor module to sensor module via multi-hopping.

9. The system of claim 6 , wherein the base station is selected from mobile and non-mobile communication devices.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first wireless links are selected from wireless personal area network (WPAN) communication protocols.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the personal area network (WPAN) communication protocols are independently selected from protocols covered by IEEE standard 802.15.

12. A seismic data acquisition system comprising:
one or more seismic sources;
a plurality of sensor modules configured to asynchronously sample seismic data, each sensor module comprising an analog seismic sensor, an A/D converter (ADC) for generating digitized seismic data, a digital signal processor (DSP), and a sensor module clock;
a seismic data recording station; and
a high precision clock;
wherein each sensor module is configured to:
periodically receive timing information from a global positioning system sufficient to calculate its clock drift relative to the high precision clock,
use an interpolation technique to adjust for the clock drift;
wherein each DSP is configured to upsample digitized seismic data at a first fixed sampling rate relative to the high precision clock; and
wherein the digitized seismic data is upsampled by each sensor unit DSP using the interpolation technique selected from linear and nonlinear interpolation, based on the amount of drift of each sensor module clock relative to the high precision clock, to increase each sensor module's effective sampling rate.

Assignees

• Westerngeco Llc

Inventors

• Barakat Simon
• Iranpour Kambiz
• Golparian Daniel

Classifications

• G01V1/247

  Digital recording of seismic data, e.g. in acquisition units or nodes · CPC title

• G01V1/22 Primary

  Transmitting seismic signals to recording or processing apparatus · CPC title