CRS - More than a stack: A workflow from time to depth

Stacking is one of the most stable processes in reflection seismic data processing. Although the stacked section provides a distorted picture of the subsurface it remains the first image in the processing chain since the CMP concept was invented more than half a century ago. The stability of the stacking process results from the limited assumptions made in its derivation. Particularly no assumption on the type of model is made. This applies as well to the extension of the CMP concept the Common Refection Surface (CRS) method. Not just one but several CMP locations are considered when determining the stacking attributes which automatically accounts for the dip of the events. This improves the structural quality of the stack. Moreover, since several CMPs are considered more traces contribute to the stack. The stack is just one product of this procedure. The stacking attributes or CRS attributes are determined for each sample of the data. These attributes (three for the 2-D situation) have many important applications in seismic data processing like velocity model building, multiple suppression, pre stack data enhancement or data regularization. What started out as a stack evolved into a reflection seismic data processing workflow from time to depth producing structural images of high fidelity. <br>