Imaging Geological Structures Up to the Acquisition Surface Using a Hybrid Refraction-Reflection Seismic Method

The aim of seismic imaging is to reconstruct the reflectivity associated with subsurface structures. In standard imaging techniques, the reflectivity model usually starts a few meters below the surface, the actual depth being dependent on data acquisition parameters and the mute used to remove stretching of first arrivals after normal moveout correction. In this paper, we describe a method to image the reflectivity of near-surface structures starting from the acquisition surface. This is achieved by processing both the first arrivals and the reflected phases present in data collected for refraction surveys. The proposed imaging procedure works in three steps. First, we obtain a velocity model for the shallow region by combining the Plus-Minus method of refraction interpretation with tomographic inversion of first arrival times. Second, by processing reflection events present in the refraction data, we obtain a standard reflectivity section for the deeper region. Finally, we compute reflectivity for the shallow region using the velocity model estimated from first arrival information in step 1. This velocity model is used both to compute reflectivity and to convert it in time. The reflectivity obtained for the shallow region is associated with velocity contrasts. In order to merge it with the reflectivity section for the deeper region a scaling factor between the two sets of reflectivity sections must be computed and applied. The novelty of this contribution is the use the tomographic velocity model in evaluating reflectivity for the upper part of the section. This improves the continuity of information about all near-surface structures in comparison with previous works that were limited to reflection data. Three field examples illustrate the proposed procedure showing continuous information about reflectivity of structures starting from the acquisition surface