A Wavefield-Domain Method for Refining Residual Timing Errors in Passive-Source Seismic Exploration

In passive-source seismic exploration, even after seismic instruments complete unified start-up acquisition and hardware synchronization, long-duration continuous records may still contain small residual timing errors, which in turn broaden cross-correlation peaks and degrade event-location results. To address this problem, this study proposes a wavefield-domain residual timing refinement method. The method uses stable noise windows and controlled artificial events in continuous records as constraints, and performs data-window preprocessing, reference cross-correlation function construction, pairwise residual lag estimation, confidence-weighted multi-station joint fusion, and smoothing-constrained fitting of a continuous correction curve to achieve a posterior refinement of residual timing errors after hardware synchronization. Fractional-delay interpolation is then used for waveform correction. Validation using a 60 min continuous record from a local six-station array shows that the proposed method can serve as an effective supplement to hardware synchronization, suppress residual timing errors, and improve the temporal consistency, waveform stackability, and interpretation reliability of passive-source seismic exploration data.