Accounting for sea surface variation in deghosting - a novel approach applied to a 3D dataset offshore west Africa

The ghosting effect of towed marine seismic data is controlled by the acquisition geometry and the sea state. Deterministic methods of deghosting typically require accurate depth information for every receiver along the length of the streamer within decimetres. Any minor inaccuracy in this information can lead to characteristic ringing through application of the deghosting operator in the wrong frequency. In practice neither the sea surface is flat nor do the receivers remain at their nominal depths; measurements themselves are sparser and generally interpolated. The position of the receiver-ghost notch frequency is dynamic, varying for every receiver in every shot gather which is augmented in higher sea states.