EisforEnvelope

March23,2011 / EvanBianco

Thereare8layersinthissimpleblockyearthmodel.You
mightsaythatthereareonly7importantpiecesofinformation
forthiscartoonearththe7reflectivitycontrastsatthelayer
boundaries.

Theseismictraceshowever,havemoreinformationthan
that.Onthezerophasetrace,thereare21extrema(peaks/
troughs).Worseyet,onthephaserotatedtracethereare28.So
somehow,theprocessofwavepropagationhasembeddedmore
informationthanweneed.Actually,inthatcase,maybewe
shouldn'tcallitinformation:it'snoise.

Itcanbehardtotellwhatisrealandwhatissidelobeand
soon,youareassigninggeologicalsignificancetonoise.A
literalinterpretationofthepeaksandtroughswouldproduce
farmorelayersthanthereactuallyare.Ifyouinterpretevery
extremeasbeingmatchedwithaboundary,youwouldbewrong.

Considertheenvelope.Theenvelopehasextremapositionedexactlyateachboundary,andperhapsmore
importantly,itliterallyenvelopes(Ienunciateitdifferentlyherefordrama)thepartofthewaveformassociated
withthatreflection.7boundaries,7bumpsontheenvelope,correctlypositionedinthetimedomain.

Noticehowtheenvelopeencompassesallphaserotationsfrom0to360degreesit'sphaseinvariant.Doesthis
makeitmorerobust?Butit'ssobroad!Arewelosingprecisionoraccuracybyaccompanyingourtracewithit's
envelope?Whatdoesverticalresolutionreallymeananyway?

Doesthismeanthateverytimethereisanenvelopemaximum,Icanexpectatruelayerboundary?Iforone,don't
knowifthisisfoolproofinthefaceofinterferringwavelets,butithasimplicationsforhowweworkasseismic
interpreters.Tomorrowwe'lltakealookattheenvelopeattributeinthecontextofrealdata.