We have developed nonlinear beamforming (NLBF), a method for enhancing modern 3D prestack seismic data acquired onshore with small field arrays or single sensors in which weak reflected signals are buried beneath the strong scattered noise induced by a complex near surface. The method is based on the ideas of multidimensional stacking techniques, such as the common-reflection-surface stack and multifocusing, but it is designed specifically to improve the prestack signal-to-noise ratio of modern 3D land seismic data. Essentially, NLBF searches for coherent local events in the prestack data and then performs beamforming along the estimated surfaces. Comparing different gathers that can be extracted from modern 3D data acquired with orthogonal acquisition geometries, we determine that the cross-spread domain (CSD) is typically the most convenient and efficient. Conventional noise removal applied to modern data from small arrays or single sensors does not adequately reveal the underlying reflection signal. Instead, NLBF supplements these conventional tools and performs final aggregation of weak and still broken reflection signals, where the strength is controlled by the summation aperture. We have developed the details of the NLBF algorithm in CSD and determined the capabilities of the method on real 3D land data with the focus on enhancing reflections and early arrivals. We expect NLBF to help streamline seismic processing of modern high-channel-count and single-sensor data, leading to improved images as well as better prestack data for estimation of reservoir properties.
