Estimating Non-stationary Wavelet Phase and Phase Error

Wavelet phase mismatches frequently occur between final processed seismic data and synthetics created from well logs. Thus, there is a need for a wavelet estimation method that can reliably predict phase from the seismic data alone. Such a method can be used for phase estimation away from wells, serve as a quality control tool, or act as a standalone technique. A kurtosis-based wavelet phase estimation technique is extended to provide non-stationary phase information. We demonstrate application of this new approach on synthetic seismic of varying complexity and show that the algorithm is sensitive to small phase anomalies unlikely to be located using standard methods. We give examples of how this new approach lends itself to simple quantitative phase error estimation, making it a fast and practical alternative to the seismic-to-well tie method.