Optimizing the removal of seismic interference noise

Perhaps the most important step in the processing of seismic data is the removal of coherent and incoherent noise. According to the ageless signal-processing mantra “rubbish in, rubbish out;” in other words, however sophisticated your imaging algorithm is, if your signal is lost under a sea of noise, then no useful seismic image will be produced. Of course, as suggested by the quotation above, one processor's noise is another processor's signal, so we may possibly want to reformulate noise removal as simply a separation of signals into those desired for the final image and those which do not contribute useful information.