Application of Near Seabed Velocity Modeling Techniques for Shallow Water OBN data

Summary As is well known, modeling of the near-surface plays a significant role on the subsurface imaging, reservoir characterization, and monitoring. Usually datum static correction is rarely applied in offshore data processing due to stable velocity of the water layer with the assumption of homogeneous layering below the water bottom. However, in some shallow water ocean-bottom node (OBN) data, the complex seabed topography and significant velocity changes near the seabed caused by complex sediments (such as mud volcano) that could affect the subsurface imaging and structural interpretation. This paper proposed a solution to build a near-seabed model using shallow-water OBN data, which can obtain an accurate velocity model near the seabed and achieve significant imaging improvement in Cheleken PSA Area in the southern Caspian Sea.