Seismatters

Some years ago, I wrote a small utility to view Seamap’s Gunlink SEGD files.

As I didn’t have much data to test with, it had some limitations.
Recently, I acquired some more files that has let me take it a bit further.
It now shows other variants including the pseudo SEAL as well decoding the external header if available.

This header contains a wealth of QC information and has got me thinking about a fully fledged QC application that
will track gun performance. Whether I actually get around to writing it remains to be seen.

More on the current Gunlink Viewer here:

https://seismatters.com/SMGLV.html

It is available as Nagware

Seismatters is back, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous benefactor who paid the web hosting for another year.

Not much else has changed.

I am still looking for work, almost anywhere as a QC rep.

My QC software is available for purchase, prices below

Prices are per licence which is for 1 machine only, transfers not permitted.

• SMRefract 200 USD
• VAPSDB3 200 USD
• SMPanels 100 USD
• SITA508 100 USD
• PN2 100 USD
• SMGetDSD 75 USD
• SMSim3 200 USD
• SMUphole3 100 USD
• SMLVL        100 USD
• SMXQT 100 USD
• SMPST 100 USD
• Prices are per licence which is for 1 machine only, transfers not permitted.

There is an additional 20% charge to cover the grossly excessive bank charges applied by the greedy banking cartel these days

Purchases can be made through DCO in Thailand, contact me for details

Details about each program from the links below.

• https://seismatters.com/SMRefract.html
• https://seismatters.com/VAPSDB3.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMPanels.html
• https://seismatters.com/SITA508.html
• https://seismatters.com/PN2.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMGetDSD.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMUH3.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMLVL.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMXQT.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMPST.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMSim3.html
• https://seismatters.com/SMCCL2.html

In all cases support is limited to the manual as available from the site.

Upgrades are provided free when available

Licences cannot be transferred

Contact me directly if you want more information.

A while back I was sent some 4 component data with a request (more a demand actually) that I provide a way to
view each component separately as a contiguous data set.

It was a sort of an interesting objective and one that I had considered in the past.
The result is SMSFExplorer.
As with many of my projects, it started out as one thing and morphed into something else.
In this case it became a comprehensive Seis file header examiner and extraction utility.

Select a folder and it will provide a list of valid Seis files
Click on any of the entries and it will load the headers for viewing
Click the header you are interested in and it will show it:

Click on a trace number and the trace header you are interested in and it will show that

You can also look at the trace itself if you want

But it doesn’t stop there.
You can export a QC header listing as text, Shape File or KML file.

And of course what we originally set out to do, a SEGY file

Exporting allows for not only the export of a specific component, but a line or channel range.

So in the end we went from a useless (from the point of QC) record with mixed sensors

To a nice record only containing the Hydrophone data

The program is still a bit fragile, so I will not make it available except to specific people on request, and then only if they can show a need for it.

seismatters.co.uk and beforesiam.com are available for purchase if anyone wants them.
Currently seismatters.co.uk redirects to seismatters.com

Only the domain names are for sale, they do not come with any content.

I will consider sensible offers.
Please contact me if you are interested:

https://seismatters.com/feedback.html

I also plan on shutting down seismatters.com in about a year.
I see no point in continuing to support an industry that has turned it back on me. It is an expense I can no longer afford.

Added some more interesting plots – Productivity and Team Production. They can be useful to find out who is working and when.

I am still looking for work. Any leads would be appreciated.

Lots of updates and minor improvements.
The big one being graphical displays of reports.
More to do, but it is coming along.

I still have a plan to generate a nice PDF report, but that is in the future, if I can maintain interest.
And I am still looking for paying work on a seismic crew if anyone out there wants a QC who can actually QC.

The Verification distributions are complete, but not all that exciting.
Of more interest is the ability to produce reports.
You can produce reports of nodal activity for any period you desire by line, by date or by field team.
You can also configure the layout to some extent.
At this stage it is text only output which will be very useful for daily QC. I plan a nice PDF output with graphs in the future, but my interest is beginning to wane.

If anyone has data to share, I would be interested in using it to test.

Just about finished the section for displaying distributions.
These are histograms for each of the various statuses reported for Deploy and Harvest. Some more interesting than others. A few details to tidy up and it will be done. You can select which ones to show and set colours etc. All very pretty.
As mentioned before, I need more data to test with though.

Have been slowly working on SMStryde2. It now outputs line profiles, produces a bunch of statistical information and validates the Deployment logger parameters.
It is difficult to work out exactly what is going to be useful until I get to a crew that is using it. And that seems unlikely.
But I will continue work on it for a little while. If anyone has data they wish to share, I am interested in using it for testing.

Here when loading data, we see some files flagged with ‘Parameter Error’
Double click on one to see the error:

In this case the cross line tolerance in the logger is set to 50, when it should be 40.
But other parameters are optionally checked also.

Line profiles. You can select up to 5 parameters to display on a page.
All the usual colour and font options are available with a right click.

General Statistics can be generated for the project or for a range of dates:

Double click to drill down into the data. We won’t show it here.

Deployment and Harvest Error statistics are also available:

Typically these are for daily use.
As with General Stats, double click to drill down into the data:

And again to get the actual points in error, with their values:

I will probably add some histograms and project error stats, but without work or data, my motivation is waning.

Have made some changes to SMRefract and SMPanels to support Stryde Nodes.
Both now read the 8058 and 8036 SEGD formats output by Stryde.
SMRefract includes full header decodes:

I am still not convinced that nodes in their current form are the future of exploration seismic, but we will see.

My new project is software to handle the Stryde Log files – Deployment, Retrieval, Harvesting and Verification.
At this stage, I can read all logs, load them into a database and display the statuses areally, both Line-Point and XY

But it will take some time to fully understand all the status information available and work out which ones are really significant when it comes to QC as the whole concept is quite different to a cable based system.
Stryde have been quite helpful though and answered all my questions.

The next step is the various statistics.

Since I don’t have much data to work with, I cannot test it fully.
Will just have to wait until some becomes available I guess.
Or better still some work comes along.

I have just completed a full rewrite of the older SMCCL. For anyone unfamiliar with it, it is an application that reduces the tedium and mess of HSE and technical checklists.

Checklists in the past have usually been a mix of MSWord or Excel files, often with slightly different formatting. And often the master copy gets accidentally overwritten with inspection results. Furthermore, scoring of long checklists is tedious and adding pictures is a chore.

SMCCL2 provides consistent formatting, is very easy to fill, scoring is automatic and adding pictures is simply drag and drop – they get resized and positioned automatically. Results are stored in a database, so you can easily keep track of action points. The application opens very quickly, unlike Word and Excel, where you seem to wait forever just to get a blank form (maybe).

It includes a form editor/creator so you can create your own forms or adapt the ones I have provided. And it can be used anywhere checklists are used, not only seismic crews.

There is limited support for languages other than English – forms can be created and filled in Spanish, French and probably a few others, but since I am not familiar with them I have not tested them.

It also supports multiple users as in the case of a shared computer – often seen in HSE offices.

Output is PDF files – no PDF creation software is required to be installed.

You can see more here:

https://seismatters.com/SMCCL2.html

It can be difficult to get a feel for the overall quality of 2D acquisition by only looking at selected shot records. By plotting the calculated RMS value of each trace for each shot, we can generate a pseudo areal display that will show stations that remain noisy over time or shots that have a significant number of channels noisy. This aids with evaluation of crew performance.

This is not exactly a new idea, I first saw it many years ago in Saudi done by a quite clever CGG processing guy who had his version running in real time in the recorder working off ADS records. And the same thing has been done by others since.

2DN requires that you scan the seismic data files and produce a text file of SP, RP and RMS for each trace in each file. I may include this function in future versions if there is some interest, but based on the interest shown in my other programs that is unlikely.

With 2DN, you can load a project’s worth of data and query by Line, then day or SP range.

Interpretation is fairly obvious to anyone in the business – vertical stripes indicate a station that was noisy for a long period, horizontal stripes are where a section of the spread was noisy and sloping stipes are moving noise. You can mouse over to determine the affected SP/RP.

More details here:

https://seismatters.com/2DN.html

A new feature of VAPSDB3 is Production Times and Stats reporting. This is found under ‘Availability’

Easy to use and provides a nice display for daily reports that even (some) junior managers can understand. It is quite configurable, with 3 easy presets:

Or almost anything else you want it to be. More about VAPSDB3 here:

https://seismatters.com/VAPSDB3.html

SMPanels has also had an update. The composite FFTs were not matching that of SMrefract as close as they should have. This is now fixed and you get the same results. SMPanels can be found here:

https://seismatters.com/SMPanels.html

And finally SMGetDSD has been updated too. A bunch of fixes that I should have looked at a long time ago, including the one where a single vib result set would not show.SMGetDSD is here:

https://seismatters.com/SMGetDSD.html

A few weeks ago, I released SMXQC and SMPSQC. These were limited in their scope, only handling single files. I wanted something that would let me compare timing and performance of all vibrators in use over a specified period.

So now we have SMXQT for the Sercel VE464 and SMPST for the INOVA VibProHD. The timing plots especially will be an invaluable tool in tuning the crew for best production. The performance and Nav plots will expose differences and potential issues that would otherwise not be apparent.

Their operation is almost identical, so I won’t cover each separately. Both provide for loading all data into a database that can then be queried to provide results as required. The programs are much faster and have more features than the earlier SMXQC and SMPSQC. They are very easy to use and set up, and the displays can be set up as you want, with adjustable fonts and colours.

Compare performance and timing across all vibs in use

Compare Navigation System Performance

Detailed plots are available for each vibrator

Very easy to set up and use

Listings with out of spec conditions flagged

Export to Text, Shape File, KML or even VAPS. Apply some basic transforms if needed – useful if working across UTM Zones.

Copy images to clipboard, save to file.

More information here :

https://seismatters.com/SMXQT.html

https://seismatters.com/SMPST.html

These and other Seismatters software products can be purchased through GRCI:

https://grc-international.net/earth-sciences-consultancy-services/seismic-exploration/

SMXQC has been updated to handle Nav QC.

You can also output results as KML or a Shape file:

The INOVA VibProHD can also produce a file very similar to the XQC file, with a few extra statuses.

To handle this, I have released SMPSQC, which operates in exactly the same way as SMXQC, but for the VibProHD.

Details here:

https://seismatters.com/SMPSQC.html

Other updates:

SMRefract

SMRefract now has full support for the INOVA G3i, including header decodes. I have also added ‘Early Noise’ to the spread display. This is unique to the INOVA system. They calculate the noise level for 100mS after TB for every trace and record this value in each trace header. A very good idea that I would like to see Sercel copy. The only problem at the moment is that they calculate an RMS value that does not appear to be very useful in detecting noisy traces. Perhaps average absolute or peak would be better, or calculating on a longer sample or even before TB. It is something I hope to see developed over time.

You can now output Spread results as KML, GDB or Shape files

And colour options are improved for the displays that have a colour bar.

VAPSDB3

The major changes are the addition of Geodetic transforms to the Export page, and adding Array Widths and Azimuth distribution displays to Patterns.

There were also some other minor fixes and changes that will probably not even be noticed by most.

SMPanels, SMSim3, SMSFD and SeisDataCompression

These have all been updated to support the INOVA G3i.  So you can now easily compare data across systems if you want.

PN2

PN2 will also handle test files from the G3i, but they have to be formatted correctly. This is done by the INOVA iX1 application. Another good idea from INOVA that I hope sees continued development. It allows for them to output status and report files in formats that are compatible or at least similar to those produced by other manufacturers. They seem to manage the Sercel formats reasonably well, especially considering the differences in design concepts. There are still a few things that need to be improved, and hopefully we will see this soon.

The XQC files as generated by Sercel’s VE464 provide a wealth of information on vibrator performance.
But as is the nature of status files from almost any system, they are not easy to interpret.
SMXQC produces a graphical summary of an XQC file.

In the wrong hands, it could lead to ‘Over QC’ of the crew, but if used carefully can reveal useful and interesting things.

Here we see a normal looking result for pressure switch on times

Here we see two distributions. This could be a bad pressure switch or a lift system pressure issue (or it might be something else)

Here we see a slow on time. This potentially costs time – 2.5 seconds per sweep.

Careful interpretation by knowledgeable people can identify issues and help performance and production

More here :
https://seismatters.com/SMXQC.html

As I needed a way to validate the Seismic File compression programs, I decided to write a file difference program.
Actually it can do a bit more – Addition, Multiplication sand division as well as subtraction.
So it could have been called Seis File Arithmetic, but an acronym of SFA is probably not the best one to use,
so I have called it Seis File Difference or SFD.

It also allows for pre and post scalars so that data sets recorded with different parameters can be compared.
It will even compare files from different systems and formats, with the caveat that the number of channels and the sample rates must be the same.
If record lengths are different, the shortest is used.

Very easy to use, just select the two files you want to compare, specify the operation, the output file
and desired options, click Go and a SEGY result file will be generated.

See here for more details : https://seismatters.com/SMSFD.html

These days QC reps are often obliged to do the HSE job as well.

A large part of this is various tedious and time consuming inspections. These are usually check-lists in a mix of MSWord or Excel files, often with slightly different formatting. And often the master copy gets accidentally overwritten with inspection results. Furthermore, scoring of long check-lists is tedious and adding pictures is a chore.

To make things a bit easier and save a lot of time, I created SMCCL. It provides consistent formatting, is very easy to fill, scoring is automatic and adding pictures is simply drag and drop – they get resized and positioned automatically. Results are stored in a database, so you can easily keep track of action points. You can even email the results from within the program, easing another task. The application opens very quickly, unlike Word and Excel, where you seem to wait forever just to get a blank form (maybe).

It includes a form editor/creator (which needs work) so you can create your own forms or adapt the ones I have provided. And it could be used anywhere check-lists are used, not only seismic crews.

At the moment it is another experimental product that needs a bit more development if I ever get some work.

You can see more here:

https://seismatters.com/SMCCL.html

An idea that has been in the back of my mind for many years is a method to compress a seismic record down to a size that it can realistically be shared by email or FTP. And I wanted to preserve all the header information, so did not want a converter, but a compressor.

The very nature of the data means that utilities like Zip and TAR do not achieve a great enough level of compression. My method can achieve quite high levels of compression (75% or more depending on parameters), while preserving headers. But it is not lossless.

For QC purposes though, it is certainly good enough, perhaps making remote QC viable. Under some conditions, it may even be usable for processing.

So far I have it working for most of the modern Sercel systems – SN408, 428, 508, SEAL, Unite, WTU and WTU3. Also for Innoseis and SmartSolo (but only for older data sets I have, if the formats have changed, I will have some more work to do). It will also work on SEGY, but typically a lower level of compression.

It is very easy to use. It consists of two applications – a Compressor which would be at the field end and a Decompressor for the Office end. Simply specify an input and an output folder and click start.

Here an example of a 98MB production shot compressed down to 8MB and then decompressed. (Only 1 line displayed of course)

Original File

Restored File after 91% compression

Here a log of some test data. The compression ratio varies depending on the data itself and the compression parameters specified. It can be optimised for each operation to achieve a suitable level of compression.

It is early days yet and needs a lot more testing under true production conditions. So it probably won’t go much further until I get some work.

SMLVL is a ‘companion’ to SMUH3. It provides easy handling of short offset refraction as is (or was) commonly done to refine near surface velocity models.

This is one of my hobby horses I guess. I firmly believe that the near surface has been neglected in favour of fancy processing modules that do not deliver all that they promise. Near surface investigation is a cheap and valuable tool that should be widely used on all projects. (But that is just my opinion).

SMLVL, like SMUH3 has the ability to encapsulate data and results so that everything is available for future reference rather than looking for a bunch of files and documents that have been scattered to the four winds.

And like SMUH3 it is very configurable so that you can produce a display that you want instead of the rather antiseptic plots delivered by the usual contractor software.

Details here:

https://seismatters.com/SMLVL.html