METHOD FOR PROCESSING SEISMIC TRACES TO PROVIDE SEISMIC DATA WITH ENHANCED SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO

A method for processing seismic traces to provide enhanced signal-to-noise ratio in seismic data is provided. A seismic survey of traces is obtained which has been collected over an areal region containing a grid of nodes. A rolling supergather aperture is used to select a subregion containing a working subset of traces. A model subset of traces is selected from proximate the center of the working subregion. The model subset of traces are composited to form a model trace. A modified subset of traces is created by comparing the individual traces with the model trace using an alignment technique, which is preferably a time varying trim statics technique. These modified subsets of traces may then be composited into a reduced set of enhanced seismic traces having enhanced signal-to-noise ratio relative to the original seismic traces. The rolling supergather aperture is then incrementally moved until traces from all over the areal region are chosen and enhanced subsets of seismic traces have been assembled into a set of seismic data having enhanced signal-to-noise ratio.