Signal-to-noise, energy sources, and acquisition techniques: a commentary

While there is no denying that increasing fold and decreasing bin size theoretically equates to improved quality, this comes with a significant increase in costs in the total equipment needed during a survey, its deployment time, and the processing of the acquired data. To offset the cost per square kilometre requires greater productivity (shots per hour/day) and is generally achieved by increasing the number of sources while using some form of simultaneous recording techniques. However, this form of acquisition also increases source-generated noise from the ‘overlapping sweeps’. Is the future of exploration, as predicted by many, an ever-increasing trace count or fold, the only way to improve data quality or are there alternatives? This article is not only a review of current acquisition techniques utilizing vibrators and the resultant expected quality but also alternative methods of acquisition that can improve both productivity and S/N by utilising land impulse sources.