Seismic Attenuation Estimation Using an Improved Frequency Shift Method

Characterization of seismic attenuation, quantified by medium quality factor
Q
, is desirable in seismic processing and interpretation. Some basic methods have been already proposed, such as the spectral ratio method, the centroid frequency shift (CFS) method, and the peak frequency shift (PFS) method. Each of the methods has advantages and disadvantages. In this letter, we propose an improved frequency shift method for
Q
estimation by combining the benefits of the CFS and PFS methods together while avoiding their shortcomings. The basic idea is that peak frequency can be calculated from centroid frequency by the conversion formula derived in this letter. Therefore, our proposed method is less systematic biased and more robust to random noise. Experiments with synthetic data are carried out to testify its theoretical performance. Statistical results have shown that the proposed method can achieve higher accuracy and robustness compared with existing methods. Field data test also proves its effectiveness.