Seismic Q Estimation from Reflection Data

Reliable Q estimation is desirable for model-based inverse Q filtering to improve seismic resolution. Conventional methods estimate Q from the amplitude spectra or frequency variations of individual wavelets at different depth (or time) levels. In this paper, the average-Q values are obtained from seismic reflection data based on the Gabor transform spectrum of a seismic trace. We transform the 2-D time-variant frequency spectrum into the 1-D spectrum, and then estimate the average-Q values based on the amplitude attenuation and compensation functions, respectively. The interval-Q values can be directly calculated from the definition of an average-Q function. We demonstrate the Q analysis procedure in both synthetic and real data examples.