Acquisition of ultra-long offset seismic data for full waveform inversion during seismic land acquisition

1. A method of performing a land seismic survey, comprising:

placing a plurality of seismic sensor receivers around a perimeter of an area, thereby establishing a seismic sensor receiver patch;

defining a plurality of seismic source points outside the perimeter, thereby establishing a seismic source patch surrounding the seismic sensor receiver patch; and

placing a plurality of long offset seismic sensors (LONs) outside of the seismic sensor receiver patch and the seismic source patch at a required long offset distance.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 10 kilometers from each of the plurality of LONs to the seismic source patch.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 15 kilometers from each of the plurality of LONs to the seismic source patch.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 20 kilometers from each of the plurality of LONs to the seismic source patch.

5. The method of claim 1 , comprising:

activating a seismic source in the seismic source patch to generate a seismic source signal;

receiving and recording reflections and reverberations of such source signal via at least one of the plurality of LONs;

performing full waveform inversion on common receiver gathers data;

determining if the plurality of LONs provides information required to derive an accurate velocity model; and

based on results of the full waveform inversion, deciding if a plurality of locations of the plurality of LONs with respect to a location of the seismic source patch is adequate for full waveform inversion.

6. The method of claim 2 , comprising placing the plurality of LONs by way of unmanned airborne vehicles.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the unmanned airborne vehicles each have thereto connected a respective LON of the plurality of LONs that is placed by landing the unmanned airborne vehicles on the Earth's surface, thereby coupling the respective LON to the Earth's surface.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the unmanned airborne vehicles each have thereto connected a respective LON of the plurality of LONs that is placed by dropping the respective LON into the Earth's surface.

9. A long offset land seismic survey spread, comprising:

a number of seismic sensor receivers disposed around a perimeter of an area thereby defining a seismic sensor receiver patch;

a number of seismic sources outside the perimeter thereby surrounding the seismic sensor receiver patch and defining a seismic source patch; and

a number of long offset seismic sensors (LONs) outside of the seismic source patch thereby surrounding the seismic sensor receiver patch and the seismic source patch and defining a long offset sensor area, wherein an area between the long offset sensor area and the seismic sensor receiver patch is free from seismic sensor receivers and defines a long offset distance.

10. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 9 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 10 kilometers, with no seismic sensor receivers from the seismic sensor receiver patch or each of the number of long offset seismic sensors being in the area traversed by and defining the long offset distance.

11. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 9 , wherein each of the long offset seismic sensors is adapted to be connected to an unmanned flying vehicle.

12. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 9 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 15 kilometers, with no seismic sensor receivers from the seismic sensor receiver patch or each of the number of long offset seismic sensors being in the area traversed by and defining the long offset distance.

13. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 9 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 20 kilometers, with no seismic sensor receivers from the seismic sensor receiver patch or each of the number of long offset seismic sensors being in the area traversed by and defining the long offset distance.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of LONs are determined based on seismic simulation using full finite difference modeling to generate synthetic data and to run full waveform inversion.

15. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 9 , comprising a controller configured to:

activate at least one seismic source of the number of seismic sources to generate a seismic source signal;

receive reflections and reverberations of the seismic source signal via at least one of the number of LONs;

perform full waveform inversion on common receiver gathers data;

determine if a collection of data acquired from each the number of long offset sensors provides information required to derive an accurate velocity model; and

based on results of the full waveform inversion, decide if a first location of each of the number of LONS with respect to a second location of the seismic source patch is adequate for performing the full waveform inversion.

16. A long offset land seismic survey spread, comprising:

a number of seismic sensors within an area thereby defining a sensor receiver patch;

a number of seismic sources within an area thereby defining a source patch; and

a number of long offset seismic sensors (LONs) outside of the source patch thereby surrounding the sensor receiver patch and the source patch and defining a long offset sensor area, wherein an area between the long offset sensor area and the sensor receiver patch is free from seismic sensors and also that defines a long offset distance, wherein the long offset distance is at least 10 kilometers, with no seismic sensor receivers from the sensor receiver patch or one or more of the number of long offset seismic sensors being in the area traversed by and defining the long offset distance.

17. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 16 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 15 kilometers.

18. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 16 , wherein the long offset distance is at least 20 kilometers.

19. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 16 , comprising a controller configured to:

activate at least one seismic source of the number of seismic sources to generate a seismic source signal; and

receive seismic data associated with the seismic source signal via at least one of the number of LONs.

20. The long offset land seismic survey spread of claim 19 , wherein the controller is configured to generate a velocity model based on the seismic data.