Seismic Attenuation Estimation via Unscaled Time–Frequency Representation and Divergence

Time–frequency (TF) representations achieve better TF localization properties compared with Fourier transform (FT) and perform well for
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estimation via methods such as spectral ratio (SR), centroid frequency shift (CFS), and peak frequency shift (PFS). However, these attenuation estimation methods all require a given frequency band or certain source wavelet assumptions, also heavily interfered by noise. In addition, the resolution and accuracy of TF spectrum also determine whether the extracted spectrum can accurately characterize the frequency properties of seismic wavelets, thus affecting the accuracy of seismic estimation results. In this study, we propose an unscaled generalized S-transform (UGST), which achieves better TF localization while avoiding the dominant frequency shift of S-transform (ST). Next, we build a
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estimation method based on the weighted Kullback–Leibler (WKL) divergence and then give an estimation workflow combined with the proposed UGST. Note that the proposed workflow does not need to make specific wavelet assumptions or consider the frequency band selection, which is also proved to be not sensitive to noise. Finally, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed workflow, we apply it to synthetic and field data. Compared with the contrastive methods, our proposed workflow can achieve more accurate estimation results and show better noise immunity, which can benefit delineating seismic hydrocarbon reservoirs.