Band-limited Noise Suppression

Organized noise on seismic traces is usually band-limited and confined to a rather narrow band
compared to the reflection signal recorded. These frequency bands may overlap and thus simple
filtering the noise band may cause loss of a part of signal bandwidth yielding loss of continuity or
resolution on the reflection signals. Some of the examples of such an organized noise are ground roll,
swell noise, air blast, etc.
In this method the seismic traces are decomposed into noise and signal components by simply filtering
the user-defined frequency band (noise component) by a band-pass filter and subtracting the filter result
from the original input trace (signal component). The envelopes for noise and signal traces are
calculated as a complex-trace attribute. The envelopes are optimally smoothed by a user specified
window.
The envelope of the noise component (scaled or unscaled, using the FACTOR parameter in FBAND),
is compared to the envelope of the signal component. The time zones where the noise component
(scaled or unscaled) exceeds the signal component are determined, and it is only in those zones where
the noise component is scaled down to have its envelope match the level of the signal envelope.
Both components of the data, original signal trace and scaled noise trace are then summed to yield the
final result.
Butterworth Filter
The following equation is used in the calculation of a Butterworth filter:

where: FBEG = the low cutoff frequency (FL)

FEND = the high cutoff frequency (FH)
FBEG and FEND are user parameters that define the bandwidth of the noise component (pass-band) of
the data. This parameters are defined as the frequency cutoff values which are 3 dB below the pass
band of the filter. N and M values define the slopes of the filter on the low and high side of the
passband of the filter. The slope is calculated in decibels per octave. However, each unit of the
parameters of N and M represents six decibels. This parameters are used in the module as N=3 and
M=6 which correspond to18 dB/octave on the low side and 36 dB/octave on the high side of the
Butterworth filter designed to filter the noise band.
Envelope of the Input Trace
Assume the seismic trace is defined as the sum of a recorded signal, , and its quadrature trace,
, where the quadrature is the 90-degree phase rotated version of the recorded signal. The quadrature is
obtained by taking the Hilbert transform of the recorded signal, :

The complex trace then becomes:

or

where is the complex operator.

The complex trace, , can be expressed in polar form:

where becomes the envelope of the trace:

AGC Overview
AGC performs time-variant automatic trace scaling (automatic gain control). The program computes
the average seismic trace amplitude within a sliding window, which may be constant or time-varying in
length. It uses the average amplitude and a scaling factor to balance the data to a constant amplitude. It
outputs traces with all the major time-variant amplitude changes removed.
The SAVE option saves the scalars computed by AGC in a user specified trace header identified by the
parameter HDRNAM. If this trace header was previously created by the SAVE option, then it can be
used to accumulate the scalar values of subsequent calls to AGC while using the SAVE option.
The RESTORE option removes scaling applied to the seismic data if the AGC scalars were previously
saved in a user-specified trace header by the SAVE option.
After removing the scaling, the RESTORE option can delete the header containing the scalar values
from the trace headers. By supplying a value of DELETE for the parameter DELETE, the user may
specify that the header containing the scalar values be removed from the trace headers.

AGC General Use

The AGC performed by this program is a nonlinear process. The derived scalar depends upon the input
data. As such, the operation has properties that are useful beyond the obvious scaling use. If, for
example, a particular dataset is contaminated with noise that is only slightly higher in amplitude than
the good data, an AGC that immediately precedes the stacking of the data may improve the signal-to-
noise ratio of the stack by deemphasizing the noisy traces before they contribute to the stack.
In general, AGC is not appropriate for data used in stratigraphic interpretation, for which knowledge of
reflection amplitude is needed. Since the computed balancing scalars are different for each trace, AGC
output amplitudes are not reliable estimates of reflection strength.
Storing Scalars in the Trace Headers
Using the SAVE option, the AGC scalars applied to the data are stored in the trace headers as a floating
point header entry. If the data has been previously processed by AGC using the SAVE option, then the
computed scalar values can replace or be multiplied with the values previously stored in the header.
When the scalars are stored, the first value recorded for a trace is the sample rate of the data.
When no longer needed, scalar values should be removed from the trace headers by running the
program HEADDEL.
Removal of Scaling
If the AGC scalars are recorded in the trace headers using the SAVE option, then they may
subsequently be removed from the data by using the RESTORE option. The RESTORE option removes
the total amount of scaling recorded in the headers.
When removing scaling with the RESTORE option, the user has the option of retaining the scalar
values in the trace headers or deleting the header entry.
AGC Application
AGC applies a scalar to every sample of every input trace. The scalar is calculated for each sample by
the following process: A time gate of the user determine length is applied to the trace. Within the gate,
the amplitude values of all nonzero samples are summed and averaged. The resulting average value is
used with parameter SFACTOR, which is a scaling factor, to calculate a scalar that multiplies the trace
sample at the midpoint of the gate.
The scaling process moves down the trace, sample by sample. The gates used to calculate the scalars
can be constant in length or time-variant. The user determines which is the case by parameter input.
Gate Length
Long gate lengths tend to preserve the character of the input data. Short gate lengths balance the data
very evenly.
There are two options in AGC for determining gate length. One option establishes gates of a constant
length. The other option varies gate length with time.
AGC uses a constant gate length of 1000 milliseconds by default if no gate length is supplied. A value
for parameter AGCGATE establishes a constant gate length of the user’s choosing.
Time-variant gates can be established by supplying the GATES parameters. Using the GATES option,
the user specifies gates of different lengths to be used for scalar calculation at particular trace sample
times.
With GATES, the user supplies pairs of parameters GATEMID and GATELNG to determine the
midpoints of gates and the gate lengths. The midpoint, GATEMID, is the sample for which the scalar is
calculated. Gates for sample times between the given midpoints are linearly interpolated. The user can
control the number of interpolated gates by specifying parameter STEPSZ. STEPSZ is a gate length
increment that is applied to successive interpolated gates. It determines how often a new interpolated
gate is generated.
Note that the scalar calculated from the first data gate is applied from the first gate center back to the
beginning of the trace. Likewise, the final gate’s scalar is applied from the center of the last gate to the
end of the data. If there are significant amplitude changes within the first or last half gate, AGC will not
compensate for them. It may be necessary to use a shorter AGC gate in those areas than is appropriate
for other portions of the traces or to apply some gain prior to AGC by running the GAIN program.
AGC Technical Description
AGC computes and applies a scalar designed to balance each seismic trace to a constant amplitude. The
scalar is calculated for a sliding gate (window) as follows:
• The absolute values of the input sample amplitudes in the gate are summed.

where: = summed absolute amplitude in the gate

 = input trace
= user-determined gate length
Yilmaz (1987, 61) offers examples and recommendations that may be helpful for selecting an AGC
gate length.
• The nonzero samples in the gate are counted.

where: = live sample count in the gate

= input trace
• The average amplitude in the gate is computed.

where: = average absolute amplitude in the gate

• The scalar is computed.

where: = computed scalar

= user-supplied parameter that controls the output amplitude
• The scalar is applied to the input trace.

where: = output trace sample at gate midpoint

= original input trace sample at gate midpoint
The scalar is computed only from the first gate center to the last gate center. Therefore, the scalar
calculated for the midpoint of the first gate is applied to the prior input samples. The scalar calculated
for the midpoint of the last gate is applied to the trailing trace samples.

AMPSCAL General Use

For each trace, for each gate a median RMS or AVE amplitude is found from the
amplitudes of corresponding gates in the NTR neighboring traces in the dataset. Only
nonzero samples are used in the computation of the amplitudes. The median is compared to
the gate amplitude in the trace. If the trace gate amplitude exceeds a threshold amplitude,
the trace gate is scaled down to a specified target amplitude. The threshold is the median
multiplied by FACTOR. The target amplitude which the data will be scaled to is the median
multiplied by TARGAMP. TARGAMP equal 0.0 will result in zeroing the output in the
gate.
One ought to select the window size to be equal to one length of the noise problem,
normally about 200 ms. Since the run time depends on the number of windows, use a large
windows where there is no significant noise problems and use smaller windows where the
data become noisy.
A scalar is computed for each window. The first window begins and ends at the specified
start or end time of the gate with the following windows beginning at half the window
length of the previous window. The whole time range of the data is used with overlapping
time windows in calculating the scalars. Depending on EXTEND the scalar for the first live
window may be applied back to time zero; the scalar for the last live window may be
applied down to the end of the trace.
First breaks, because of their naturally high amplitudes, can overshadow otherwise
anomalously high amplitudes in the reflections. To cause AMPSCAL to ignore first breaks
in the median computation, one supplies DSNMUTF and DSNMUTB parameters.
Two methods are available for computing amplitudes: AVM and RMS.
Average amplitude, used in the AVM method, is computed by summing the absolute value
of all data samples within the gate and dividing by the number of nonzero sample points.
The root mean square amplitude used in the RMS method is computed by summing the
squares of all data samples within the gate and dividing by the number of nonzero sample
points, then taking the square root.
Mute trace header items ontime, offtime, onramp and offramp are not modified by
AMPSCAL.