Applications for vector coordinate systems of 3-D converted-wave data

Recently, 3-D four-component marine ocean-bottom cable (OBC) data has come into broad use for a variety of applications. However, understanding how these new components and their associated acquisition and processing coordinate systems are related to the vector wavefield has become a challenging task for the exploration industry. The compressional wavefield (P-wave) is obtained from the pressure response of the hydrophone plus the particle-motion response from the vertical geophone. A converted P-wave to shear wavefield (PS-wave) is obtained from two horizontal geophone components oriented in an acquisition coordinate system of in-line and cross-line particle motion.