Seismic Attenuation Estimation Using the Centroid Frequency Shift and Divergence

Quality factor Q can be used for hydrocarbon detection and reservoir characterization. The commonly used methods for Q estimation include the logarithm spectral ratio (LSR) method, the centroid frequency shift (CFS) method, and the peak frequency shift (PFS) method. However, all these methods are existing limitations respectively. The LSR method is sensitive to random noise. The CFS and PFS methods are lack of applicability owing to their assumptions of the source wavelet type. To overcome these limitations, we derived a new formula without any wavelet assumption. This formula establishes a relationship between the Q factor and the spectral centroid downshift concisely through the Jeffery divergence. The proposed method is named the generalized centroid frequency shift (GCFS) method. Compared with the conventional methods, the proposed method can achieve higher accuracy and better antinoise performance. In addition, the proposed method is suitable for various source wavelet types. Synthetic and field examples demonstrate the effectiveness and potential of the proposed method.