The Effect of Land Seismic Recording System Noise Levels on Survey Productivity

Previously, attempts at increasing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of land seismic data concentrated on the source. For example, increasing the number of records stacked, the weight of explosives or the Vibroseis sweep parameters. Such tactics result in the expense of the survey increasing, either through an increase in materials or equipment, or a decrease in productivity. Another, often overlooked, option is to decrease the noise level. In this paper we look at how the choice of recording system can affect the resulting productivity of a survey through their different levels of recorded noise. Our results showed that the improvement can be as much as 6 dB, equating to a reduction in the number of stacked records from 40 to 4 or the sweep length being reduced by 75%. This improvement is a result of both the nodal acquisition systems lack of wiring and surface equipment, and improvements in coupling related to the cylindrical shape of the nodes.