The complex seismic trace made simple

Many geophysicists find the complex seismic trace to be complex. With its Hilbert transforms and imaginary traces, the complex seismic trace may well seem unnatural, a kind of mathematical trick. Yet we geophysicists find Fourier transforms, with their complex exponentials and negative frequencies, natural and reasonable. This is because we intuitively understand what Fourier transforms are all about, but we often lack comparable understanding of complex traces. And without intuitive understanding the complex trace seems more difficult than it really is.