Considerations on Current and Future Multicomponent Streamer Design

Summary The towed-streamer market is moving towards multi-component streamers, which contain hydrophones and particle motion sensors. The main source of noise on particle motion sensors is the streamer vibration, and it can be challenging to obtain a high enough signal to noise ratio. In this paper, we study how the characteristics of transverse vibration noise are affected by the choice of the streamer mechanical platform. To compare the implications of design options side by side we have built different streamer sections with dense point receiver sampling, identical electronic backbone and MEMS sensors, but different mechanical properties. We towed them together under different tensions in a fjord experiment. We observed that, as expected, the transverse vibration noise was the dominant noise mode, with dispersion characteristics depending on the streamer bending stiffness. We also found that the noise amplitude and maximum frequency depends on the mechanical properties of the cable, and that they could be reduced by using a new type of gel optimized to dampen vibration. Based on these findings, we see an opportunity to design a cost-efficient streamer combining an optimized mechanical platform with a new single sensor configuration.