A STATISTICAL APPROACH TO THE EXTRACTION OF THE SEISMIC PROPAGATING WAVELET*

A model of the seismic trace is generally given as a convolution between the propagating wavelet and the reflectivity series of the earth and normally it is assumed that a white noise is added to the trace. The knowledge of the propagating wavelet is the basic point to estimate the reflectivity series from the seismic trace.

In this paper a statistical method of wavelet extraction from several seismic traces, assuming the wavelet to be unique, is discussed. This method allows one to obtain the propagating wavelet without any classical limitative assumptions on the phase spectrum. Furthermore, a phase unwrapping method is suggested and some statistical properties of the phase spectrum of the reflectivity traces are examined.