Surface-consistent scaling, otherwise known as true-amplitude or AVO-compliant processing, tries to equalize trace amplitudes due to acquisition and near-surface effects while preserving amplitude differences due to geology. It is considered critical in bright-spot analysis, AVO analysis, and waveform inversion, where trace-by-trace scaling can mask geological effects.
The ProMAX system has a surface-consistent scaling module called Surface Consistent Amps. The Juniper Bay version offers numerous improvements, including:
- Easier to use. In particular, there are fewer parameters and they are easier to select. The meaning of some of the ProMAX parameters are not clear.
- Fast and fully runnable in parallel. There are some ProMAX steps that can not all be run in parallel, and one of the steps (COMPUTE) can be terribly slow for certain parameter selections.
- Statistically robust, meaning insensitive to erratic noise. This robustness is found in both individual trace scaling measurements and the surface-consistent solution.