System and method for refining positions of marine seismic receivers

1. A method for monitoring and adjusting recording positions of plural autonomous receiver nodes (ARNs) of a seismic survey system exploring a subsurface under seafloor, the method comprising:

calculating first travel-times of direct arrivals of seismic waves, based on (i) offsets between shooting positions of seismic sources emitting the seismic waves and estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs, and (ii) a speed of the seismic waves in water;

estimating second travel-times of the direct arrivals, based on seismic data recorded by the plural ARNs that detect the seismic waves including ones traveling through the subsurface;

estimating, in a computing device, positioning errors of one or more among the plural ARNs by applying an inversion algorithm to a misfit between the first and second travel-times; and

adjusting the estimated recording positions of the one or more ARNs with the positioning errors to obtain updated recording positions used when processing the seismic data.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying the one or more ARNs among the plural ARNs for which a respective misfit exceeds a given threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a positioning error of one of the ARNs is equal to a difference of first and second travel-times of the one of the ARNs multiplied by the speed of the seismic waves in water.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated recording positions are based on measurements performed with an acoustic system.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

recalculating the first travel-times based on the (i) updated offsets between the shooting positions of the seismic sources and the updated recording positions of the plural ARNs, and (ii) the speed of the seismic waves in water.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inversion algorithm operates on individual ARN recordings.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the inversion algorithm operates jointly on all individual ARN recordings.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs are calculated based on ocean currents and initial recording positions measured with an acoustic system.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a mask of weights for the estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs, based on the positioning errors.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

calculating weighted positioning errors by applying the mask of weights to the estimated recording positions.

11. A computing device for monitoring and adjusting recording positions of plural autonomous receiver nodes (ARNs) of a seismic survey system, the computing device comprising:

an interface for receiving offsets between shooting positions of seismic sources and estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs; and

a processor connected to the interface and configured to,

calculate first travel-times of direct arrivals of seismic waves, based on (i) the offsets between shooting positions of seismic sources and the estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs, and (ii) a speed of the seismic waves in water,

estimate second travel-times of the direct arrivals, based on seismic data recorded by the plural ARNs,

estimate, in a computing device, positioning errors of one or more among the plural ARNs by applying an inversion algorithm to a misfit between the first and second travel-times of the one or more among the plural ARNs, and

adjust the estimated recording positions of the one or more ARNs with the positioning errors to obtain updated recording positions used when processing the seismic data.

12. The device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

identify the one or more ARNs among the plural ARNs for which a respective misfit exceeds a given threshold.

13. The device of claim 11 , wherein a positioning error of one of the ARNs is equal to a difference of respective first and second travel-times of the one of the ARNs multiplied by the speed of the seismic waves in water and the estimated recording positions are based on measurements with an acoustic system.

14. The device of claim 11 , wherein the processor is further configured to:

recalculate the first travel-times based on (i) updated offsets between the shooting positions of the seismic sources and the updated recording positions of the plural ARNs, and (ii) the speed of the seismic waves in water.

15. A method for adjusting trajectories of plural autonomous receiver nodes (ARNs) of a seismic survey system, the method comprising:

calculating, in a computing device, estimated positions of the plural ARNs at time t based on ocean currents and current positions of the plural ARNs;

applying, in the computing device, an inversion algorithm to the ocean currents to calculate inverted ocean currents;

calculating predicted positions of the plural ARNs at a given time t based on the inverted ocean currents;

calculating first positioning errors of the plural ARNs as a difference between the predicted positions at the given t and distances to actual positions of the ARNs measured with an acoustic system at time t; and

adjusting the actual positions of the plural ARNs with the first positioning errors.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

generating a mask of weights for the current positions of the plural ARNs, based on the first positioning errors.

17. The method of claim 15 , further comprising:

calculating first travel-times of direct arrivals of seismic waves, based on (i) offsets between shooting positions of seismic sources emitting the seismic waves and estimated recording positions of the plural ARNs, and (ii) a speed of the seismic waves in water;

calculating second travel-times of the direct arrivals, based on seismic data recorded by the plural ARNs that detect the seismic waves including ones traveling through the subsurface;

estimating second positioning errors of one or more among the plural ARNs by applying another inversion algorithm to a misfit between the first and second travel-times; and

adjusting the estimated recording positions of the one or more ARNs with the second positioning errors.