A COMPARISON OF TAU-P TRANSFORM METHODS

Many τ-p transform methods are available to seismic data analysts; selection of the appropriate method should depend on the nature of the source excitation, the intended use of the transformed data, limits imposed by sampling parameters, and computational cost. Using these criteria, five methods are compared on marine multichannel data and similar synthetic profiles. On fully sampled synthetic profiles, methods that handle the three-dimensional (3-D) nature of the point source provide correct amplitude and phase information even at small slownesses, whereas 2-D and asymptotic approximate methods do not. When the intended use of the transformed data depends on correct arrival times only, and not on accurate amplitudes of small-slowness traces, we recommend an asymptotic approximate method for its relative computation efficiency and comparative robustness with respect to aliasing and truncation. Uses that depend on correct amplitudes demand a τ-p transform method which honors the source geometry of the experiment. -from Authors