Retrieval of Body-Wave Reflections Using Ambient Noise Interferometry Using a Small-Scale Experiment

We report the retrieval of body-wave reflections from noise records using a small-scale experiment over a mature oil field. The reflections are obtained by cross-correlation and stacking of the data. We used the stacked correlograms to create virtual source-to-receiver common shot gathers and are able to obtain body-wave reflections. Surface waves that obliterate the body-waves in our noise correlations were attenuated following a standard procedure from active source seismics. Further different strategies were employed to cross-correlate and stack the data: classical geometrical normalized cross-correlation (CCGN), phase cross-correlation (PCC), linear stacking**** and phase weighted stacking (PWS). PCC and PWS are based on the instantaneous phase coherence of analytic signals. The four approaches are independent and reveal the reflections; nevertheless, the combination of PWS and CCGN provided the best results. Our analysis is based on 2145 cross-correlations of 600 s data segments. We also compare the resulted virtual shot gathers with an active 2D seismic line near the passive experiment. It is shown that our ambient noise analysis reproduces reflections which are present in the active seismic data.We thank the Editor, Adrien Oth, and two anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments that improved the original manuscript. We also thank Petrobras for the financial support. AFdN and MS thank CNPq for the Grant 402174/2012-7 (Science without Borders Programme), AFdN thank CNPq for Grant 303817/2014-3. OABD thanks the PRH-ANP-22 (‘‘Programa de Formac¸ão em Geologia, Geofísica e Informática no Setor Petróleo & Gás na UFRN’’) for his MSc scholarship.Peer reviewe