Seismic Acquisition with Dispersed Source Arrays: Imaging Including Internal Multiples and Source Ghost Reflections

A seismic acquisition method is proposed that involves the exploitation of inhomogeneous sources. The constraint of employing only identical units can be abandoned. We suggest to replace (or reinforce) traditional broadband sources with narrow(er)band devices, together representing a dispersed source array (DSA). The whole inhomogeneous ensemble of sources incorporated to the arrays is required to cover the entire temporal and spatial bandwidth of interest. The DSA concept can be an important step towards the robotization of the seismic acquisition process and an improved operational flexibility. In addition, narrow band source design can be better optimized, no compromise between the emission efficiency around the limits of the bandwidth of interest is requested. Furthermore specific attention can be addressed to choose source depths and spatial sampling intervals that are optimum for particular devices. Valid and encouraging numerical migration results are shown.