The Application of Integrity Monitoring to Offshore Seismic Survey Operations

The paper first reviews the use of tailbuoy systems for offshore operations, and briefly discusses the application of GPS to tailbuoy tracking. This discussion motivates the need for integrity monitoring. The solution method developed for tailbuoy tracking, involving the direct computation of each buoy's separation vector, is described; the computation of both a priori and a posteriori (i.e., overdetermined) statistics associated with the tailbuoy solution is also described. The use of these quality control measures for real-time fault detection and isolation, in addition to their use as accuracy measures, is discussed. Finally, experiences with the system during the at-sea test and operational periods are reviewed.