4. Design Controls

This section describes how you can tweak various parameters to improve the Spectral Blueing operator.

Figure 4.44. Design Controls Dialog

Design Controls Dialog


SsbQt is data driven, so once the data is identified and loaded then a Spectral Blueing operator will immediately be available for saving. This makes the Spectral Blueing analysis very easy for the end user. However, the resulting operator may not be optimum. Therefore, it will frequently be necessary to perturb various design parameters to produce the optimum Spectral Blueing operator. The various charts within the main window are used to help you produce the ideal Spectral Blueing operator for your data. Below is a description of the primary parameters used to design the Spectral Blueing operator. Additional parameters can be found under the "Advanced Controls" dialog.

The Design Controls dialog is split into three groups: Smooth Seismic Mean, Fit Well Log Curves and Design Controls. The following three sections describe these groups.

4.1. Smooth Seismic Mean

Figure 4.45. Smooth Seismic Mean

Smooth Seismic Mean


The only parameter in this group is the Smooth Operator Len (Hz). This spinbox controls the length of the smoothing operator used in the smooth mean algorithm that is applied to the seismic mean spectrum. It has a range of 1 - 1/5th nyquist and by default it is set to a value of 1/25th nyquist. View the chart named "Seismic Mean" whilst changing the value in the spinbox to see the effect of this parameter. The aim here is to iron out high frequency amplitude variations as we are only interested in the global shape of the seismic spectrum. The image in the figure above shows the smooth mean spectrum (black) overlaying the mean spectrum (red). Here the Smoothing Operator Len is set at 10Hz.

4.2. Fit Well Log Curves

Figure 4.46. Fit Well Log Curves block

Fit Well Log Curves block


Full Range: This checkbox item allow you to control whether curve fitting is performed on the full range. The spinbox controls in this group are the primary parameters used for principal curve fitting.

  1. Full Range checkbox (checked) - default on the distributed template

    In this mode, curve-fitting is performed on the global spectrum and will be performed on the "Full Range". The Low Cut and High Cut for Fit Well Log Curves will be desensitised.

  2. Full Range checkbox (unchecked)

    In this mode, curve fitting consists of three curves "Below Principal", "Principal" and "Above Principal". The intersection between the "Below Principal" and the "Principal" curves is at the "Low Cut" point. The intersection of the "Principal" and "Above Principal" curves is at the "High Cut" point. The "Low Cut" spinbox is the Minimum Fit Frequency of the principal curve and the "High Cut" spinbox is the Maximum Fit Frequency of the principal curve. The other curves outside this range are generated in accordance with the controls on the "Frequency Domain" tab on the "Advanced Controls" dialog.

    Low Cut: This spin box allows you to specify the minimum frequency that the curve fit algorithm will attempt to fit for the principal curve. By default, this is set to zero Hz. However, if including lower frequencies is not of any concern to you or you wish to additionally use a low frequency curve or linear horizontal low frequency section, then setting this to a higher value can often result in a better curve fit over the frequency range of interest.

    High Cut: This spin box allows you to specify the maximum frequency that the curve fit algorithm will attempt to fit for the principal curve. By default, this is set to the nyquist frequency. However, if including higher frequencies is not of any concern to you or you wish to additionally use a high frequency curve or linear horizontal high frequency section, then setting this to a lower value can often result in a better curve fit over the frequency range of interest.

    Curve fitting is updated immediately the "Low Cut" control, "High Cut" control or the "Frequency Domain" controls on the "Advanced Controls" dialog are changed. In this case we have defaulted the Low Cut to zero Hz and have set the high cut to 90Hz. The Above Principal curve fit is horizontal.

    At any time you can curve fit to the full spectrum 0 Hz - nyquist by toggling on the "Full Range" checkbox within the "Fit Well Log Curves" group.

The field Beta displays the value of this key curve fitting parameter which can be changed on the "Advanced Controls" dialog.

4.3. Design Operator

Figure 4.47. Design Operator block

Design Operator block


The "Design Operator" group provides controls which allow you to perturb how the Spectral Blueing operator spectrum is generated. Specifically, it allows you to adjust the bandwidth of the designed operator. Normally, the default is that the bandwidth is automatically calculated. The "Design Operator" chart displays three spectra. The first spectrum is the band limited curve fit (green curve), the second spectrum is the smooth seismic mean (red curve) and the third spectrum is the Spectral Blueing operator (blue curve).

Auto Calc.: The top checkbox controls whether the "Low Cut" and "High Cut" (i.e. design operator bandwidth) values are automatically calculated.

  1. Top Auto Calc. checkbox (checked) - default on the distributed template

    In this mode the design operator bandwidth is automatically calculated

  2. Top Auto Calc. checkbox (unchecked)

    In this mode you can manually set the "Low Cut" and "High Cut" spinboxes.

    Low Cut: this control will be sensitised allowing you to adjust the low cut to optimise the Spectral Blueing operator. Using the "Residual Operator (QC)" chart will help. The objective here is that the residual operator should be essentially flat and centred around 0 dB within the bandwidth.

    High Cut: this control will be sensitised allowing you to adjust the high cut to optimise the Spectral Blueing operator. Using the "Residual Operator (QC)" chart will help. As with the Low Cut, the objective is that, the residual operator should be essentially flat and centred around 0 dB within the bandwidth.

Auto Calc.: The middle checkbox allows you to control the slopes on the derived operator. This checkbox is only sensitised if you are manually setting the design operator "Low Cut" and "High Cut" (i.e. the top Auto Calc checkbox is unchecked).

  1. Middle Auto Calc. checkbox (checked) - default on the distributed template

    In this mode, the -60 dB down point is at 0 Hz on the low size with the -60 dB down point 30 Hz above the High Cut value on the high side.

  2. Middle Auto Calc. checkbox (unchecked)

    In this mode you can manually specify the frequency of the -60 dB down point both on the low and high sides.

Auto Calc.: The bottom checkbox controls whether the "Num. Zero X-ings" (i.e. time domain operator truncation) value is automatically or manually calculated.

  1. Bottom Auto Calc. checkbox (checked) - default on the distributed template

    In this mode, the truncation of the time domain Coloured Inversion operator will be automatically determined. This is controlled by a parameter which sets the percentage of energy captured. The percentage of energy captured template parameter is currently set at 99.9%. If the minimum level of automatic truncation were to take the energy captured below this threshold, then no truncation is performed and 100% of the energy would be captured. It is planned that future versions of SsbQt will allow you to set template (default) parameters. It is sometimes desirable to alter the amount of truncation applied in order to reduce the length of long tails of very small sample values or to include additional samples of significant value.

  2. Bottom Auto Calc. checkbox (unchecked)

    In this mode, the Num. Zero X-ings spinbox must be set manually. This allows you to adjust the length of the time domain operator in steps of zero crossings. It is desirable to have the operator truncate to a sample point close to a zero crossings point as it reduces anonymous side effects which might be introduced when the operator is applied.

    A read only field to the right displays the percentage of energy captured as you adjust the number of zero crossings.

QC Against Input Seismic: This checkbox control, if checked, allows you to perform the QC against the original set of random seismic traces instead of the alternative set of random seismic traces.

  1. QC Against Input Seismic checkbox (unchecked) - default on the distributed template

    In this mode, the calculation of the Spectral Blueing operator is performed using the original set of random seismic trace (listed on Select Input Data dialog -> Input Seismic tab -> Input tab). The QC of the Spectral Blueing operator is performed on the alternative set of random seismic traces (listed on Select Input Data dialog -> Input Seismic tab -> QC tab).

  2. QC Against Input Seismic checkbox (checked)

    In this mode, the calculation of the Spectral Blueing operator is again performed using the original set of random seismic trace (listed on Select Input Data dialog -> Input Seismic tab -> Input tab). However, the QC of the Spectral Blueing operator is performed on the same set of random seismic traces (listed on Select Input Data dialog -> Input Seismic tab -> Input tab).