Introduction

Deconvolution prior to autocorrelation processing for a passive seismic data set has the potential to ameliorate wave-parameter and azimuthal inconsistency of arriving energy during acquisition. If any particular subset of plane-wave energy dominates the passive recording sequence, full illumination of the model-space may not be achieved. Further limitation of the result could also arise from the fact that the bulk of the ambient energy recorded in the experiment will likely be ground-roll energy that does not probe the subsurface. Thus, damping over-represented energy components by convolving the data with a prediction error filter (PEF) prior to processing/migration could serve to mitigate these short-comings of the experimental design.

To address the first problem of wave-number and azimuthal inconsistency, Artman (2002) suggests a trace balancing scheme after transformation of the raw data into $(\omega,p)$-space. Convolution with a PEF instead will also produce this result.