Comments: download file (cintal_rep).
Ref.: SiPLAB Report 07/17, SiPLAB, University of Algarve, December 2017.
Abstract
This report describes seismic data acquired during the WiMUST trial at the port of Sines,
Portugal, between the 17th and the 21st of July 2017. This was the second joint integration
trial of the WiMUST project carried out within the activities of the Work Package 7 - Integration
and Experimentation. All WiMUST partners and available Autonomous
Underwater Vehicles (AUV) were participating (Medusas from IST and Folagas from
ISME) just as during the first WiMUST integration trial. The major difference during
this trial and the first one, was that now the seismic sources (sparkers), were mobile on
Autonomous Surface Vessels (ASV).
The main purpose of this second WiMUST trial was the integration of the ASV carrying
the sparkers, with the AUVs towing the streamers for a seismic acquisition scenario. The
prime aim of the trial was to test the communication between the ASVs and the AUVs
and the synchronization between them. Next important aim was to acquire seismic data
in order to see whether an image can be obtained by the AUVs towing streamers in a
scenario where the seismic source is decoupled from the streamers by been carried by
ASV. In this report, after a general description of the environment and equipment used
during the trial, the text is focused on the seismic acquisition and data format.
Since this trial was focused on the sparker integration with the ASV, the acquisition
of useful seismic data was very limited. Reasonable quality data are discussed in the
last chapter, however the large positioning offsets, speed variations during the tracks and
synchronization issues rendered this data unsuitable for seismic processing. The data,
which was communicated between partners during the trial and are useful from the seismic
processing perspective are included in the WiMUST repository Sines Trial 17, which can
be found in the WiMUST server Apollo. This repository includes only the data which
are in standard format, i.e. data which are proprietary to GeoSurveys and can be read
only by the multi-trace software are not included and not discussed here. The contents
are grouped in folders per day of the trial, for those days where data with potential for
seismic post-processing were acquired; the activities of the trial for those days are also
described in the last chapter of this report. The general impression is that this data are
not suitable for seismic imaging due to noise and synchronization issues.