Ricksep is a freely-available interactive viewer created to study multi-dimensional seismic data volumes Clapp et al. (2001); Clapp (2001). The viewer follows earlier efforts by SEP to visualize and interact with large multi-dimensional volumes Biondi and van Trier (1993); Claerbout (1981); Clapp (1995); Mora et al. (1996); Ottolini (1990). Among Ricksep's most notable features currently are simultaneous display of multiple data volumes from different viewing angles, real-time animation of movement through a volume, and convenient selection of local regions for processing.
Since Ricksep was last released, there has been interest in improving the program to solve three important issues. First, in velocity analysis, a seismic volume containing reflection data and a related velocity volume generated from a model are often compared alongside one another. The seismic volume contains many localized geophysical structures, which correspond to high-frequency spatial variations. Meanwhile, the velocity volume changes slowly, resulting in low-frequency spatial variations. To accurately and conveniently study the separated high and low-frequency details together, it would be very useful to synthesize a single volume that resembles the original high and low-frequency volumes on small and large scales, respectively.
Second, there can be difficulty in displaying a path through a data volume of dimensionality three or higher. Paths are important to seismic data analysis because they represent wells going into the ground. If the data space is two-dimensional, the entire space can be seen and visually tracing out the path is straightforward. If dimensionality is three or higher, however, it becomes very difficult, and in some cases impossible, to see samples along the path as the path travels into the volume's interior. An effective path visualization method is needed for general multi-dimensional volumes.
Third, one of Ricksep's strengths is its large set of options for viewing a volume. These options include jumping to a point in the volume, zooming in on a local region, applying various color maps, and switching perspectives. If all such viewing changes can be recorded in a history list, then the program can allow users to backtrack their viewing decisions, much like how a word processor undoes typing changes. The saved history list can be used later for automation of viewing and data processing commands.
A new set of features has been created for Ricksep to solve these problems. In Section 2, the Velocity View tool for synthesizing a single volume from high and low-frequency volumes is described. In Section 3, the Path View tool for projecting samples along a path is presented. History List is the new tool for editing and saving a sequence of viewing commands in a Ricksep session, and its functionality is explained in Section 4. The keyboard and menu controls for Velocity View, Path View, and History List are summarized in Section 5. Finally, the conclusion in Section 6 suggests future improvements for the features introduced in this paper.