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1.
We address the problem of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio during surface microseismic monitoring data processing. Interference from different seismic waves causes misleading results of microseismic event locations. Ground-roll suppression is particularly necessary. The standard noise suppression techniques assume regular and dense acquisition geometries. Many pre-processing noise suppression algorithms are designed for special types of noise or interference. To overcome these problems, we propose a novel general-purpose filtration method. The goal of this method is to amplify only the seismic waves that are excited in the selected target area and suppress all other signals. We construct a linear projector onto a frequency domain data subspace, which corresponds to the seismic emission of the target area. The novel filtration method can be considered an extension of the standard frequency–wavenumber flat wave filtration method for non-flat waves and arbitrary irregular receiver-position geometries. To reduce the effect of the uncertainty of the velocity model, we suggest using additional active shot data (typically the perforation shots), which provide static travel time corrections for the target area. The promising prospects of the proposed method are confirmed by synthetic and semi-synthetic data processing. 相似文献
2.
Passive seismic has recently attracted a great deal of attention because non‐artificial source is used in subsurface imaging. The utilization of passive source is low cost compared with artificial‐source exploration. In general, constructing virtual shot gathers by using cross‐correlation is a preliminary step in passive seismic data processing, which provides the basis for applying conventional seismic processing methods. However, the subsurface structure is not uniformly illuminated by passive sources, which leads to that the ray path of passive seismic does not fit the hyperbolic hypothesis. Thereby, travel time is incorrect in the virtual shot gathers. Besides, the cross‐correlation results are contaminated by incoherent noise since the passive sources are always natural. Such noise is kinematically similar to seismic events and challenging to be attenuated, which will inevitably reduce the accuracy in the subsequent process. Although primary estimation for transient‐source seismic data has already been proposed, it is not feasible to noise‐source seismic data due to the incoherent noise. To overcome the above problems, we proposed to combine focal transform and local similarity into a highly integrated operator and then added it into the closed‐loop surface‐related multiple elimination based on the 3D L1‐norm sparse inversion framework. Results proved that the method was capable of reliably estimating noise‐free primaries and correcting travel time at far offsets for a foresaid virtual shot gathers in a simultaneous closed‐loop inversion manner. 相似文献
3.
Retrieving virtual reflection responses at drill‐bit positions using seismic interferometry with drill‐bit noise 
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下载免费PDF全文 In the field of seismic interferometry, researchers have retrieved surface waves and body waves by cross‐correlating recordings of uncorrelated noise sources to extract useful subsurface information. The retrieved wavefields in most applications are between receivers. When the positions of the noise sources are known, inter‐source interferometry can be applied to retrieve the wavefields between sources, thus turning sources into virtual receivers. Previous applications of this form of interferometry assume impulsive point sources or transient sources with similar signatures. We investigate the requirements of applying inter‐source seismic interferometry using non‐transient noise sources with known positions to retrieve reflection responses at those positions and show the results using synthetic drilling noise as source. We show that, if pilot signals (estimates of the drill‐bit signals) are not available, it is required that the drill‐bit signals are the same and that the phases of the virtual reflections at drill‐bit positions can be retrieved by deconvolution interferometry or by cross‐coherence interferometry. Further, for this case, classic interferometry by cross‐correlation can be used if the source power spectrum can be estimated. If pilot signals are available, virtual reflection responses can be obtained by first using standard seismic‐while‐drilling processing techniques such as pilot cross‐correlation and pilot deconvolution to remove the drill‐bit signatures in the data and then applying cross‐correlation interferometry. Therefore, provided that pilot signals are reliable, drill‐bit data can be redatumed from surface to borehole depths using this inter‐source interferometry approach without any velocity information of the medium, and we show that a well‐positioned image below the borehole can be obtained using interferometrically redatumed reflection responses with just a simple velocity model. We discuss some of the practical hurdles that restrict the application of the proposed method offshore. 相似文献
4.
Repeating airgun sources are eco-friendly sources for monitoring the changes in the physical properties of subsurface mediums, but their signals decay quickly and are buried in the noises soon after traveling short distances. Stacking waveforms from different airgun shots recorded by a single seismic station (shot stacking) is the most popular technique to detect weak signals from noisy backgrounds, and has been widely used to process the data of Fixed Airgun Signal Transmission Stations (FASTS) in China. However, shot stacking sacrifices the time resolution in monitoring to recover a qualified airgun signal by stacking many shots at distance stations, and also suffers from persistent local noises. In this paper, we carried out several small-aperture seismic array experiments around the Binchuan FAST Station (BCFASTS) in Yunnan Province,China, and applied the array technique to improve airgun signal detection. The results show that seismic array processing combining with shot stacking can suppress seismic noises more efficiently, and provide better signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and coherent airgun signals with less airgun shots. This work suggests that the array technique is a feasible and promising tool in FAST to increase the time resolution and reduce noise interference on routine monitoring. 相似文献
5.
现有的微震记录直接成像方法是将微震记录既当作入射记录,也当作散射记录,从而实现偏移成像.但此方法并不能突出透射波所携带的来自震源下方的深层散射波信息.本文在假设已知微震位置与子波的前提下,提出了对微震下方构造进行逆时偏移的成像方法.该方法类似于常规的逆时偏移,只是震源位置在地下.这使得在成像时,地下更深部的入射波场相比震源在地表时会更为精确,因此能够获得更加准确的成像结果.该方法会给成像结果带来一种尾波高频干扰：地下的震源发出的上行波与上方介质作用后,所产生的多级散射波会干扰反传波场.对此,在成像过程中,对入射场和散射场都进行左右行波分离,以压制该噪声.而在子波信息未知,无法重构入射场时,使用了激发时间成像条件,也能够实现同等效果的偏移成像,且不会出现尾波高频干扰.利用数值实验验证了本文方法的有效性. 相似文献
6.
In hydraulic fracturing treatments, locating not only hydraulic fractures but also any pre‐existing natural fractures and faults in a subsurface reservoir is very important. Hydraulic fractures can be tracked by locating microseismic events, but to identify the locations of natural fractures, an additional technique is required. In this paper, we present a method to image pre‐existing fractures and faults near a borehole with virtual reverse vertical seismic profiling data or virtual single‐well profiling data (limited to seismic reflection data) created from microseismic monitoring using seismic interferometry. The virtual source data contain reflections from natural fractures and faults, and these features can be imaged by applying migration to the virtual source data. However, the imaging zone of fractures in the proposed method is strongly dependent on the geographic extent of the microseismic events and the location and direction of the fracture. To verify our method, we produced virtual reverse vertical seismic profiling and single‐well profiling data from synthetic microseismic data and compared them with data from real sources in the same relative position as the virtual sources. The results show that the reflection travel times from the fractures in the virtual source data agree well with travel times in the real‐source data. By applying pre‐stack depth migration to the virtual source data, images of the natural fractures were obtained with accurate locations. However, the migrated section of the single‐well profiling data with both real and virtual sources contained spurious fracture images on the opposite side of the borehole. In the case of virtual single‐well profiling data, we could produce correct migration images of fractures by adopting directional redatuming for which the occurrence region of microseismic events is divided into several subdivisions, and fractures located only on the opposite side of the borehole are imaged for each subdivision. 相似文献
7.
由于地面微地震监测台站布设在地表,会受到地表起伏、低降速带厚度和速度变化的影响,降低了微地震事件的识别准确度和定位精度,限制了地面微地震监测技术在复杂地表地区的应用.因此,将三维地震勘探技术的思路引入到地面微地震监测中,提出了三维地震与地面微地震联合校正方法,将油气勘探和开发技术更加紧密地结合在一起.根据三维地震数据和低降速带测量数据,通过约束层析反演方法建立精确的近地表速度模型,将地面微地震台站从起伏地表校正到高速层中的平滑基准面上,有效消除复杂近地表的影响.其次,根据射孔数据和声波测井速度信息,通过非线性反演方法建立最优速度模型,由于已经消除复杂近地表的影响,在进行速度模型优化时不需要考虑近地表的影响,因而建立的速度模型更加准确.最后,在精确速度模型的基础上,通过互相关方法求取剩余静校正量,进一步消除了复杂近地表和速度模型近似误差的影响.三维地震与地面微地震联合校正方法采用逐步校正的思路,能够有效消除复杂近地表的影响,提高微地震数据的品质和速度模型的精确度,保证了微地震事件的定位精度,具有良好的应用前景. 相似文献
8.
Cross double‐difference inversion for simultaneous velocity model update and microseismic event location 下载免费PDF全文
下载免费PDF全文 Microseismic monitoring is an approach for mapping hydraulic fracturing. Detecting the accurate locations of microseismic events relies on an accurate velocity model. The one‐dimensional layered velocity model is generally obtained by model calibration from inverting perforation data. However, perforation shots may only illuminate the layers between the perforation shots and the recording receivers with limited raypath coverage in a downhole monitoring problem. Some of the microseismic events may occur outside of the depth range of these layers. To derive an accurate velocity model covering all of the microseismic events and locating events at the same time, we apply the cross double‐difference method for the simultaneous inversion of a velocity model and event locations using both perforation shots and microseismic data. The cross double‐difference method could provide accurate locations in both the relative and absolute sense, utilizing cross traveltime differences between P and S phases over different events. At the downhole monitoring scale, the number of cross traveltime differences is sufficiently large to constrain events locations and velocity model as well. In this study, we assume that the layer thickness is known, and velocities of P‐ and S‐wave are inverted. Different simultaneous inversion methods based on the Geiger's, double‐difference, and cross double‐difference algorithms have been compared with the same input data. Synthetic and field data experiments suggest that combining both perforation shots and microseismic data for the simultaneous cross double‐difference inversion of the velocity model and event locations is available for overcoming the trade‐offs in solutions and producing reliable results. 相似文献
9.
M. Behm 《Geophysical Prospecting》2017,65(2):563-580
The analysis of seismic ambient noise acquired during temporary or permanent microseismic monitoring campaigns (e.g., improved/enhanced oil recovery monitoring, surveillance of induced seismicity) is potentially well suited for time‐lapse studies based on seismic interferometry. No additional data acquisition required, ambient noise processing can be automatized to a high degree, and seismic interferometry is very sensitive to small medium changes. Thus there is an opportunity for detection and monitoring of velocity variations in a reservoir at negligible additional cost and effort. Data and results are presented from an ambient noise interferometry study applied to two wells in a producing oil field in Romania. Borehole microseismic monitoring on three component geophones was performed for four weeks, concurrent with a water‐flooding phase for improved oil recovery from a reservoir in ca. 1 km depth. Both low‐frequency (2 Hz–50 Hz) P‐ and S‐waves propagating through the vertical borehole arrays were reconstructed from ambient noise by the virtual source method. The obtained interferograms clearly indicate an origin of the ambient seismic energy from above the arrays, thus suggesting surface activities as sources. It is shown that ambient noise from time periods as short as 30 seconds is sufficient to obtain robust interferograms. Sonic log data confirm that the vertical and horizontal components comprise first arrivals of P‐wave and S‐waves, respectively. The consistency and high quality of the interferograms throughout the entire observation period further indicate that the high‐frequency part (up to 100 Hz) represents the scattered wave field. The temporal variation of apparent velocities based on first‐arrival times partly correlates with the water injection rate and occurrence of microseismic events. It is concluded that borehole ambient noise interferometry in production settings is a potentially useful method for permanent reservoir monitoring due to its high sensitivity and robustness. 相似文献
10.
Everhard Muyzert 《Geophysical Prospecting》2018,66(8):1535-1547
Autonomous marine vehicles instrumented with seismic sensors allow for new efficient seismic survey designs. One such design is the swarm survey, where a group, or swarm, of slow moving autonomous marine vehicles record seismic data from shots fired by a source vessel sailing around circles within the swarm. The size of the swarm is dictated by the maximum offset requirement of the survey, and it can be shaped to acquire wide‐ and full‐azimuth data. The swarm survey design equation describes the relationship between the source and receiver positions of the survey and the subsurface coverage or fold. It is used to adapt the swarm to the seismic survey requirements and to calculate survey duration time estimates as function of available equipment. It is shown that a survey conducted by a slowly moving swarm requires six times fewer shots than an equivalent seabed node survey conducted over 85.5 km2. Swarm surveys can also be adapted to efficiently conduct infill surveys and replace multi‐vessel undershoots. The efficiency of the survey can further be increased when the autonomous marine vehicles are towing short streamers with multiple receivers. Synthetic tests show that the seismic images for swarm surveys are comparable to those from streamer surveys, while little variation in image quality is found when reducing the number of autonomous marine vehicles but equipping them with a short streamer with multiple receivers. 相似文献
11.
The knowledge of the velocity model in microseismic jobs is critical to achieving statistically reliable microseismic event locations. The design of microseismic networks and the limited sources for calibration do not allow for a full tomographic inversion. We propose optimizing a priori velocity models using a few active shots and a non‐linear inversion, suitable to poorly constrained systems. The considered models can be described by several layers with different P‐ and S‐wave velocities. The velocities may be constant or have 3D gradients; the layer interfaces may be simple dipping planes or more complex 3D surfaces. In this process the P‐ and S‐ wave arrival times and polarizations measured on the seismograms constitute the observed data set. They are used to estimate two misfit functions: i) one based on the measurement residuals and ii) one based on the inaccuracy of the source relocation. These two functions are minimized thanks to a simulated annealing scheme, which decreases the risk of converging to a local solution within the velocity model. The case study used to illustrate this methodology highlights the ability of this technique to constrain a velocity model with dipping layers. This was performed by jointly using sixteen perforation shots recorded during a multi‐stage fracturing operation from a single string of 3C‐receivers. This decreased the location inaccuracies and the residuals by a factor of six. In addition, the retrieved layer dip was consistent with the pseudo‐horizontal trajectories of the wells and the background information provided by the customer. Finally, the theoretical position of each calibration shot was contained in the uncertainty domain of the relocation of each shot. In contrast, single‐stage inversions provided different velocity models that were neither consistent between each other nor with the well trajectories. This example showed that it is essential to perform a multi‐stage inversion to derive a better updated velocity model. 相似文献
12.
We develop a new time‐domain reverse‐time migration method called double plane‐wave reverse‐time migration that uses plane‐wave transformed gathers. Original shot gathers with appropriate data acquisition geometry are double slant stacked into the double plane‐wave domain with minimal slant stacking artefacts. The range of plane‐wave components needed for migration can be determined by estimating the maximum time dips present in shot gathers. This reduces the total number of input traces for migration and increases migration efficiency. Unlike the pre‐stack shot‐profile reverse‐time migration where the number of forward propagations is proportional to the number of shots, the number of forward propagations needed for the proposed method remains constant and is relatively small even for large seismic datasets. Therefore, the proposed method can improve the efficiency of the migration and be suitable for migrating large datasets. Double plane‐wave reverse‐time migration can be performed for selected plane‐wave components to obtain subsurface interfaces with different dips, which makes the migration method target oriented. This feature also makes the method a useful tool for migration velocity analysis. For example, we are able to promptly obtain trial images with nearly horizontal interfaces and adjust velocity models according to common image gathers. Seismic signal coming from steeply dipping interfaces can be included into the migration to build images with more detailed structures and higher spatial resolution as better velocity models become available. Illumination compensation imaging conditions for the proposed method are also introduced to obtain images with balanced amplitudes. 相似文献
13.
Vertical seismic profiling using a daisy‐chained deployment of fibre‐optic cables in four wells simultaneously – Case study at the Ketzin carbon dioxide storage site 下载免费PDF全文
下载免费PDF全文 The geological storage of carbon dioxide is considered as one of the measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate global warming. Operators of storage sites are required to demonstrate safe containment and stable behaviour of the storage complex that is achieved by geophysical and geochemical monitoring, combined with reservoir simulations. For site characterization, as well as for imaging the carbon dioxide plume in the reservoir complex and detecting potential leakage, surface and surface‐borehole time‐lapse seismic monitoring surveys are the most widespread and established tools. At the Ketzin pilot site for carbon dioxide storage, permanently installed fibre‐optic cables, initially deployed for distributed temperature sensing, were used as seismic receiver arrays, demonstrating their ability to provide high‐resolution images of the storage formation. A vertical seismic profiling experiment was acquired using 23 source point locations and the daisy‐chained deployment of a fibre‐optic cable in four wells as a receiver array. The data were used to generate a 3D vertical seismic profiling cube, complementing the large‐scale 3D surface seismic measurements by a high resolution image of the reservoir close to the injection well. Stacking long vibro‐sweeps at each source location resulted in vertical seismic profiling shot gathers characterized by a signal‐to‐noise ratio similar to gathers acquired using geophones. A detailed data analysis shows strong dependency of data quality on borehole conditions with significantly better signal‐to‐noise ratio in regions with good coupling conditions. 相似文献
14.
Microseismic monitoring has proven invaluable for optimizing hydraulic fracturing stimulations and monitoring reservoir changes. The signal to noise ratio of the recorded microseismic data varies enormously from one dataset to another, and it can often be very low, especially for surface monitoring scenarios. Moreover, the data are often contaminated by correlated noises such as borehole waves in the downhole monitoring case. These issues pose a significant challenge for microseismic event detection. In addition, for downhole monitoring, the location of microseismic events relies on the accurate polarization analysis of the often weak P‐wave to determine the event azimuth. Therefore, enhancing the microseismic signal, especially the low signal to noise ratio P‐wave data, has become an important task. In this study, a statistical approach based on the binary hypothesis test is developed to detect the weak events embedded in high noise. The method constructs a vector space, known as the signal subspace, from previously detected events to represent similar, yet significantly variable microseismic signals from specific source regions. Empirical procedures are presented for building the signal subspace from clusters of events. The distribution of the detection statistics is analysed to determine the parameters of the subspace detector including the signal subspace dimension and detection threshold. The effect of correlated noise is corrected in the statistical analysis. The subspace design and detection approach is illustrated on a dual‐array hydrofracture monitoring dataset. The comparison between the subspace approach, array correlation method, and array short‐time average/long‐time average detector is performed on the data from the far monitoring well. It is shown that, at the same expected false alarm rate, the subspace detector gives fewer false alarms than the array short‐time average/long‐time average detector and more event detections than the array correlation detector. The additionally detected events from the subspace detector are further validated using the data from the nearby monitoring well. The comparison demonstrates the potential benefit of using the subspace approach to improve the microseismic viewing distance. Following event detection, a novel method based on subspace projection is proposed to enhance weak microseismic signals. Examples on field data are presented, indicating the effectiveness of this subspace‐projection‐based signal enhancement procedure. 相似文献
15.
为了研究利用小当量震源进行远距离探测的可能性,通过现场试验进行了研究.野外实验采用1次大当量激发和16次小当量激发,研究结果表明：①有可能利用数十公斤当量的炸药实现200km距离的探测;②在激发条件相同（或相近）时,不同当量的激发波形滤波后存在一定的相似性;③依据人工震源可重复性采用以下的激发组合方式和处理方法能够有效提高信噪比：针对大当量激发与小当量激发波形的相似性,利用大当量激发的波形作模板与小当量激发的波形作相关,可判断台站是否接受到小当量激发的信号并检测其震相到时信息.针对小当量激发波形的相似性,采用小当量多次激发的方式,通过N次根加权叠加方法,能有效提高记录的信噪比和震相识别精度. 相似文献
16.
—?This paper reports results from two recent monitoring experiments in Wyoming. Broadband seismic recordings of kiloton class delay-fired cast blasts and instantaneous calibration shots in the Black Thunder coal mine were made at four azimuths at ranges from 1° to 2°. The primary focus of this experiment was to observe and to explain low-frequency signals that can be seen at all azimuths and should routinely propagate above noise to mid-regional distances where most events will be recorded by International Monitoring System (IMS) stations.¶The recordings clearly demonstrate that large millisecond delay-fired cast blasts routinely produce seismic signals that have significant spectral modulations below 10?Hz. These modulations are independent of time, the azimuth from the source and the orientation of the sensor. Low-frequency modulations below 5?Hz are seen beyond 9°. The modulations are not due to resonance as they are not produced by the calibration shots. Linear elastic modeling of the blasts that is guided by mine-blast reports fails to reproduce the fine detail of these modulations but clearly indicates that the enhanced “spectral roughness” is due to long interrow delays and source finiteness. The mismatch between the data and the synthetics is likely due to source processes, such as nonlinear interactions between shots, that are poorly understood and to other effects, such as variations of shot time and yield from planned values, that are known to be omnipresent but cannot be described accurately. A variant of the Automated Time-Frequency Discriminant (Hedlin, 1998b), which uses low-frequency spectral modulations, effectively separates these events from the calibration shots.¶The experiment also provided evidence that kiloton class cast blasts consistently yield energetic 2–10 second surface waves. The surface waves are strongly dependent on azimuth but are seen beyond 9°. Physical modeling of these events indicates that the surface waves are due mainly to the extended source duration and to a lesser extent to the slap-down of spalled material. The directionality is largely a path effect. A discriminant that is based on the partitioning of energy between surface and body waves routinely separates these events from the calibration shots.¶The Powder River Basin has essentially no natural seismic activity. How these mining events compare to earthquake observations remains to be determined. 相似文献
17.
A field test of 14 seismic P-wave sources was designed to show the capabilities of several sources for shallow subsurface investigations in the quaternary landscapes of Northern Germany. The sources included accelerated dropped weights, shallow blasts, a shotgun using blank cartridges and controlled signal sources. Local changes in subsurface conditions showed a strong influence on the recorded data, so it proved necessary to record up to 120 shots per source in order to get representative results and to compare not only single shot records but stacked sections as well. Reducing the geophone spacing to 1 m, it became possible to trace very local features like fluctuations in travel times or in the recorded amplitudes. The amplitude spectra of the recorded traces indicated energy at frequencies up to 200 Hz and showed remarkable spatial changes due to different subsurface conditions near the receiver locations. Changes in signal form and amplitude due to compacting effects were visible in the first four impacts of strong sources. 相似文献
18.
Wave‐equation based shot‐record migration provides accurate images but is computationally expensive because every shot must be migrated separately. Shot‐encoding migration, such as random shot‐encoding or plane‐wave migration, aims to reduce the computational cost of the imaging process by combining the original data into synthesized common‐source gathers. Random shot‐encoding migration and plane‐wave migration have different and complementary features: the first recovers the full spatial bandwidth of the image but introduces strong artefacts, which are due to the interference between the different shot wavefields; the second provides an image with limited spatial detail but is free of crosstalk noise. We design a hybrid scheme that combines linear and random shot‐encoding in order to limit the drawbacks and merge the advantages of these two techniques. We advocate mixed shot‐encoding migration through dithering of plane waves. This approach reduces the crosstalk noise relative to random shot‐encoding migration and increases the spatial bandwidth relative to conventional plane‐wave migration when the take‐off angle is limited to reduce the duration of the plane‐wave gather. In turn, this decreases the migration cost. Migration with dithered plane waves operates as a hybrid encoding scheme in‐between the end members represented by plane‐wave migration and random shot‐encoding. Migration with dithered plane waves has several advantages: every synthesized common‐source gather images in a larger aperture, the crosstalk noise is limited and higher spatial resolution is achievable compared to shot‐record migration, random shot‐encoding and linear shot‐encoding, respectively. Computational cost is also reduced relative to both random and linear shot‐encoding migration since fewer synthesized common‐source gathers are necessary to obtain a high signal‐to‐noise ratio and high spatial resolution in the final image. 相似文献
19.
Microseismic monitoring in the oil and gas industry commonly uses migration‐based methods to locate very weak microseismic events. The objective of this study is to compare the most popular migration‐based methods on a synthetic dataset that simulates a strike‐slip source mechanism event with a low signal‐to‐noise ratio recorded by surface receivers (vertical components). The results show the significance of accounting for the known source mechanism in the event detection and location procedures. For detection and location without such a correction, the ability to detect weak events is reduced. We show both numerically and theoretically that neglecting the source mechanism by using only absolute values of the amplitudes reduces noise suppression during stacking and, consequently, limits the possibility to retrieve weak microseismic events. On the other hand, even a simple correction to the data polarization used with otherwise ineffective methods can significantly improve detections and locations. A simple stacking of the data with a polarization correction provided clear event detection and location, but even better results were obtained for those data combined with methods that are based on semblance and cross‐correlation. 相似文献
20.
Farnoush Forghani‐Arani Jyoti Behura Seth S. Haines Mike Batzle 《Geophysical Prospecting》2013,61(4):778-787
In studies on heavy oil, shale reservoirs, tight gas and enhanced geothermal systems, the use of surface passive seismic data to monitor induced microseismicity due to the fluid flow in the subsurface is becoming more common. However, in most studies passive seismic records contain days and months of data and manually analysing the data can be expensive and inaccurate. Moreover, in the presence of noise, detecting the arrival of weak microseismic events becomes challenging. Hence, the use of an automated, accurate and computationally fast technique for event detection in passive seismic data is essential. The conventional automatic event identification algorithm computes a running‐window energy ratio of the short‐term average to the long‐term average of the passive seismic data for each trace. We show that for the common case of a low signal‐to‐noise ratio in surface passive records, the conventional method is not sufficiently effective at event identification. Here, we extend the conventional algorithm by introducing a technique that is based on the cross‐correlation of the energy ratios computed by the conventional method. With our technique we can measure the similarities amongst the computed energy ratios at different traces. Our approach is successful at improving the detectability of events with a low signal‐to‐noise ratio that are not detectable with the conventional algorithm. Also, our algorithm has the advantage to identify if an event is common to all stations (a regional event) or to a limited number of stations (a local event). We provide examples of applying our technique to synthetic data and a field surface passive data set recorded at a geothermal site. 相似文献