QVOA-Method or Q-Anisotropy for Fracture-Reservoir Characterization

New seismic acquisition technology enables us to record wider bandwidth with higher signal-to-noise ratio. With this benefit we are able to improve seismic resolution and inversion quality. However, as higher frequencies are being propagated and recorded, the seismic signal is more susceptible to attenuation and energy losses. Because attenuation is proportional to the wavelength and not to the actual propagation distance, illuminating the subsurface with high frequencies enhance attenuation effects on seismic data. As attenuation, like any other rock property, is spatially varying high frequency seismic data will carry the attenuation footprint. Besides obvious effects such as reduced bandwidth and amplitudes, which will be present in the seismic data, attenuation also deteriorates the seismic wavelet. Hence, seismic inversion algorithms, which are based on recovering the reflectivity series from a given wavelet, will carry the spatial signature of the subsurface attenuation.<br>