Simultaneous source separation using an annihilation filter approach

Simultaneous shooting increases acquisition efficiency by activating more than one source at the same time. This introduces blending noise that typically needs to be removed before data processing. We present a new deblending algorithm based on iterative annihilation filtering. The strategy attenuates coherent energy using a modified sparse τ-p transform following which the remaining energy is re-aligned to form the deblended output. The method is tested on a numerically blended dataset using real short and long offset narrow azimuth data. The results show the residual blending noise to be ~25 dB down.