MAXIMUM-ENTROPY ANALYSIS OF DISPERSED SEISMIC SIGNALS

Conventional moving-window analyzers based on Fourier transforms sometimes lack the resolution required to separate each of the modes in a seismic waveguide. It is possible to enhance the resolution of the moving-window analyzer by using a maximum entropy power spectral estimator to approximate the spectrum of each windowed segment of a trace. Barrodale and Erickson have developed a suitable maximum entropy algorithm which can also be applied to estimating the parameters required in the fast recompression of inseam seismic arrivals. The Barrodale-Erickson maximum entropy algorithm appears to need a sample rate of approximately ten times the Nyquist rate in order to generate meaningful maximum entropy spectra. The required increase can be achieved in the laboratory by applying an accurate interpolator to field records.