Vertical Seismic Profile Wavefield Separation Using Median Filtering Constrained by the Linear Radon Transform

Separation of downgoing and upgoing P-waves and S-waves in an offset 2D/3D vertical seismic profile (VSP) record is a basic step in VSP data processing. Radon transform and median filtering methods are commonly used to separate wavefields. However, with the former, it is hard to strike a balance between the resolution and amplitude preservation, while the latter ignores the variation in the slowness (apparent velocity) of events. In order to solve these problems, we propose a method based on a modified linear Radon transform and dynamic time shifting. We derive the slowness spectrum of an input VSP record through the modified Radon transform. Based on the optimal slope values of the events derived from the slowness spectrum, we align the wavefields by dynamic time shifting. Then, the target wavefields are separated using a median filtering constrained by the linear Radon transform. Our wavefield separation process is iterated until the four kinds of wavefields are separated according to a priority ranking based on the order of the energy spectrum from strong to weak. The results were found to be better than those derived from wave separation using the traditional median filter or those derived using the high-resolution Radon transform method.