Interferometric interpolation of missing seismic data

We have developed an interferometric interpolation method for filling in trace gaps in common-shot gathers. There are two steps for implementation. First, virtual traces are created in the trace gaps by crosscorrelating recorded traces in a shot gather followed by summing correlated trace pairs over all shot positions. Second, a 1D matching filter is applied to the predicted events to correct for wavelet and amplitude distortions. By using a 1D assumption (assuming a layered medium around the midpoint in a common-midpoint (CMP) gather), the interferometric interpolation method can be applied to CMP gathers. It is a fully data-driven method that requires only the original data. Results with synthetic and field data empirically show that the near-offset traces can be interpolated; but because of the approximations introduced by a limited recording aperture, there are still some artifacts. For comparison, a 2D nonstationary prediction-error filter (PEF) was also used instead of a 1D matching filter in the second step of the interferometric interpolation method. The comparison between the 1D matching filter results and 2D PEF results does not show significant differences.