The Design and Operation of a Small Seismic Data Processing System at the Bureau of Mineral Resources

Most organizations requiring seismic data processing facilities either buy commercially produced systems, or use contractor processing. Presented here is an overview of the design, implementation, and operation of a system built in-house for processing small volumes of marine seismic data collected by the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR). This system was implemented prior to the delivery of the new BMR processing centre. The system is based on an HP 1000 F-series minicomputer, and a CSPI MAP-300 array processor, and uses disc rather than magnetic tape as the main data storage medium. Much attention has been given to making the system easily usable by non-specialists, and the system design allows easy modification of existing processes and addition of new ones. Processing facilities are mainly orientated towards shallow, high resolution data recorded with a sparker source, but the system has also been used for processing deep crustal land data, and deep water marine data. The quality of the processed sparker data has been as good as or better than the same data processed commercially; this is mainly due to the use of a new deconvolution technique. The processing system as a whole would be appropriate for a user who did not require, or could not afford, the capacity of a larger commercial system, but who has a need to process a modest and continuing stream of data. The success of the project indicates that it is possible for small organizations to acquire a seismic data processing capacity at a relatively low capital cost.