Conclusions

When imaging data affected by spatial aliasing, we would like not to be forced to trade-off resolution for signal-to-noise ratio. When a priori knowledge of the structure in the target zone enables us to make realistic assumptions on the dip content of the data, the application of the anti-aliasing method presented in this paper yields images with higher resolution than the images obtained by applying the standard anti-aliasing criteria. The new anti-aliasing method presented in this paper is based on a more comprehensive understanding of aliasing of Kirchhoff-like imaging operators.

Imaging of steeply dipping salt flanks is an important application of the proposed ``high-resolution'' method. The steeply dipping sediment terminations against the salt are important areas for hydrocarbon exploration, and in many cases it is realistic to assume that the data close to the salt flanks do not contain energy dipping in the direction opposite to the flank reflections. The data example from the Gulf of Mexico demonstrates that the proposed method improves image resolution, without adding aliasing noise.

I would like to thank Unocal for releasing to SEP the data set shown in the paper. In particular, I would like to thank Wook Lee with Unocal for preparing and sending the data.